Looking at PFF, I guess those 7 sacks were a figment of my imagination
I ante up because I enjoy the site, and that gives me access to their “premium” content
After the game, after seeing what I imagined was 7 sacks and an ungodly number of pressures, I visited in order to see where I should point the finger.
I scrolled from Raimann to Nelson to Bortolini to Goncalves and Braden Smith. I looked at each of them, and imagine my surprise when I found that not one of them had given up a sack.
To summarize:
Bernard Raimann gave up 1 pressure and earned a pass blocking grade of 88.0
Quenton Nelson didn’t allow a single pressure and had a grade of 89.3
For Tanner Tanor Bortolini, it was 1 pressure with a grade of 68.3
Goncalves allowed a whopping 2 pressures on route to a grade of 65.6
And for Smith it was 1 and 82.3
All in all, a pretty good performance with only a couple of hiccups.
Being curious, I began to wonder just where those 7 mystery sacks and 9 pressures came from. Judging by PFF, no one was responsible, but there had to be an explanation.
After pondering it for a while and working my way through a couple..or so…Budweisers, several possibilities sprang to mind.
Perhaps the Falcons Defense discovered some new path to the quarterback that bypassed the Offensive Line, sort of like Columbus sailing west, trying to find China?
Maybe Montgomery Scott had beamed them into the backfield.
Could they have sprung from the ground like the undead from some old George Romero Zombie movie…I have to figure they were the fast zombies from World War Z, because if they were slow zombies, even the most immobile quarterback would have had no trouble evading pressure.
Or were, somehow, elves and gremlins involved?
In the end, I was unable to arrive at a plausible explanation, so I leave it up to any of you to explain it.
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