Another horrible rule: QB's losing 2 points for every sack. 5 YEARS AGO, it was not Big Ben's fault that he was sacked like 50 times! Killed my chances despite a solid all around team.
It actually was Big Ben's fault, to a large extent. Ben extends plays. That's what he does. It's what makes him extremely valuable- he'll break containment, break down the defense, and make a huge play out of a busted coverage that results. One of the costs of this playstyle is that instead of throwing the ball away to avoid a sack, Ben's going to hold on to it and try to make something happen. This means that he suffers a lot more sacks than, say, Peyton Manning would if he was playing in the same offense. Peyton's style of play is to identify the pressure before the snap and scheme a quick and safe offensive play to get the ball out before the pressure gets to him.
If you look at offenses that start two different quarterbacks for prolonged stretches, you'll see both quarterbacks tend to have wildly different sack rates, because sacks taken is in large part a result of the quarterback's decisions. In 2011, Tim Tebow was sacked on 10.9% of his dropbacks. That same year, Kyle Orton's sack rate in Denver was 5.5%, or about half. In 2012, with largely the same offensive line, Peyton's sack rate was 3.5% in Denver. In 2010, Indy gave up a sack on 2.3% of its pass attempts. In 2011, with Peyton Manning sidelined, that number jumped up to 6.2% of its pass attempts. Last year, Jason Campbell was sacked on 4.8% of his pass attempts. In the same offense, Brandon Weeden went down on 9.2% of his pass attempts.
Offensive protection plays a role, too, but the quarterback alone probably accounts for about 50% of the sacks he takes. To get back to Peyton Manning- he played this last year with a 3rd string center, he lost his All Pro left tackle a few games in, and he was still the least-sacked QB in the NFL. It was the 11th time in his career he's finished in the top 3 in sack rate, and he's never finished lower than 10th. Is it because the dozens of different offensive linemen who have protected him over his 16 year career have all been phenomenal? Or is it because whether he gets sacked or not is largely within his own power, and he's just preternaturally gifted at avoiding sacks? How much of Dan Marino's absurdly low sack rate was on his offensive line, and how much was on his famously quick release?
