Chase Daniel took five sacks in the Chicago Bears loss to the New York Giants. Who takes responsibility for the breakdowns?
Without Mitch Trubisky for two weeks Chicago Bears fans were able to see first and foremost just how important their signal caller is. This can be shown no more clear than how sacks he has taken.
Trubisky took four sacks in Week One, but since has done a decent job of getting the ball out and staying upright. Including his season high performance in Week One he has a sack rate of 5.6%. In two games, Chase Daniel has a sack rate of 10.2%, nearly double.
Of course, not all of that is on the quarterback, right. Well, for Daniel he could be the difference.
Here is the first sack. While it is tough to completely blame Daniel for this sack, Mitch Trubisky does not take this sack. You can see they are running a screen pass to the right after a fake to the left. Daniel sells the fake, but as he looks right does not feel comfortable with the amount of space that Cohen had.
Trubisky likely would fire that pass in, and with his arm, may have fit it. However, Daniel does not have that confidence or arm. Instead, he holds onto the ball and takes a sack. Everyone can take some blame for the play, but Daniel needs to let go of the football.
The play is a design, no one is going to bust open on a broken play. It is either there to throw, or not there to toss away and live another down.
The second sack, linked here, is not on Daniel. This is a pretty clean loss for right guard Bryan Witzmann. Hill swims over Witzmann to shoot into the backfield. Cody Whitehair is there to protect a bit, but Hill is rolling down hill and makes the sack.
The third sack, linked here, can go back on Daniel, though. You can see he is in a clean pocket, he is going through his progressions and while it looks like he is ready to uncork one, he pumps and decides not to fire.
Here is a picture of what he is looking at. You can see the pass he is about to make is to an open Anthony Miller streaking across the seam. There is a linebacker underneath, and this is likely what gives him pause. However, this should have been his decision, and from a clean pocket the ball should have been out. This is on Daniel.
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The fourth sack is going to go on Daniel as well. It is linked here. Daniel is progressing right to left, and sees three defenders on two receivers to the right. However, as he shifts left, he instead decides to drop his eyes and look for running lanes rather than feel out his progression.
Here is how he reacts in the pocket. On the left side of the first clip, you can see a check down option squirt free on the far side. However, you can see after Daniel pumps twice to the opposite side that he is never looking to the other side of the field. Instead, his head goes down and eventually so does he.
The last sack of the day may be the most cut and dry. No easy decisions for Daniel, no help from any lineman, just a clean loss for Charles Leno. The play is linked here. To be fair to Leno, Olivier Vernon is the Giants best defensive player and was very due for a sack. At the same time, Leno straight up lost, and the result was a fumble.
Updated Sack Stats
Chase Daniel: 6.5
Charles Leno- 6.5
Mitch Trubisky- 5
Kyle Long– 3.5
Bobby Massie– 3
Bryan Witzmann-2
Eric Kush– 1
Trey Burton– 0.5