I thought it might be worthwhile to set up a thread to track various team metrics week by week to document the Hutch effect and how the group responds to this profound level of adversity. So…
Through week 5
4th in Defensive DVOA
13th in total defense
27th in passing defense
3rd in rushing defense
5th in passing defense DVOA
10th in rushing defense DVOA
8th in scoring defense
10th in red zone defense
2nd 3rd down defense
14th (tied) Sacks tied
7th (tied) force TOs
Watch them get better.
I think it’s hard for even his harshest detractors to argue that AG’s defenses don’t get better end of year. It has been a constant.
There also have been mid season swoons even with most of our best players healthy. So a dip and then a recovery won’t surprise me.
We also have Love and the Packers and Stroud and the Texans coming up.
Honestly if we can just keep that TO forced number up that combined with our offense is going to help us win a ton of games.
Ewing theory!
I think a few players could get better as the season progresses (Arnold, Jack, Paschal, Levi)…. but I think that has to be considered as well.
If the defensive rankings even stay the same….
will make us wonder how good they could have been with Hutch all year.
I was listening to a podcast with Trevor from PFF talking about Hutch. He mentioned talking to a football type (forget the specifics) who had put Hutch’s performance in a certain context. That context being that our whole DL/collective plan is set up to get Hutch one on one matchups. And he wasn’t saying that to takeaway from Hutch’s performance but instead point out that we might recalibrate our pass rush plan to focus on guys like Alim and Levi getting advantageous interior one on ones rather than take up doubles.
Stafford and pass game got better when Megatron retired. It’s not quite the same thing obviously but it might be similar in a way, with Hutch on the field opponents knew where the primary threat was, with Hutch off the field it allows AG to run more exotic blitz packages where the pass rush can come from the LBs or the secondary. I’m not saying that we’ll be better off without him, but I think his loss can be mitigated by more diverse scheming and other players on defense being given more responsibility and stepping up, just like what happened with Megatron.
yards don’t matter
they are 5th in passing defense DVOA
10th in rushing defense DVOA
I agree about yards but I don’t have access to the further DVOA breakdowns so please do post them week by week. I’ll add them now.
I’m gonna call it the Utley effect.
Watch’n’see
GREAT topic
The Lions will definitely miss Hutch but pressure, sacks, and a dominant defense can be had without a dominant individual pass rusher.
The team that currently leads the league in sacks doesn’t have anyone on the roster that has ever achieved double digit sacks.
The Denver Broncos lead the NFL in sacks with 28.
They have an ensemble cast led by guys named:
Nik Bonitto, LB: 5 Sacks
Jonathon Cooper, LB: 4.5 Sacks
Zach Allen, DE: 4 Sacks
Justin Strnad, LB: 3 Sacks
John Franklin-Myers, DE: 3 Sacks
Let’s see how AG attacks the problem.
There needs to be a double blind study to differentiate the Hutch effect from the Kindle Vildor effect.
Yep. Good name for it. I mentioned this in a previous topic. We are going to turn this into a positive.
ok. they come out on Tuesdays.
Worth noting that the first TD today was on a short field, the third TD was a fumble return, and the Vikings didn’t once get into the redzone.
Defense was excellent. DVOA numbers will take that all into account
Great point, defense did very well today.
After one week without Hutch (through game 6):
5th in Defensive DVOA
18th in total defense
27th in passing defense
5th in rushing defense
5th in passing defense DVOA
13th in rushing defense DVOA
9th in scoring defense
8th in red zone defense
4th in 3rd down defense
9th in Sacks (tied). (Tied for 4th per game but for whatever reason I didn’t do it that way last week)
8th (tied) force TOs
Do you have rushing and passing DVOA #'s though last week?