Earlier we looked at Jason Campbell's performance on deep passes as an Oakland Raider. Too make a long story short it was not good. Well, the same people that put together those numbers are back this week with another interesting statistical analysis on QB play. ProFootballFocus.com compiled all of their blitz stats from last year to evaluate how QBs performed while facing a rush of five or more players.
To qualify for the list a QB had to face a blitz while dropping back to pass 100 times during the 2010 season. 32 QBs qualified. The first thing that jumps out is the Oakland Raiders were blitzed a lot—especially when Bruce Gradkowski was at the helm. Grad dropped back to pass 173 times and was blitzed on 100. That is 57.8 percent of his attempts. That was the highest percentage by a mile. Not one other QB on the list crossed the 50 percent line.
Teams were rewarded when blitzing Bruce. He was in the bottom five in all other blitz performance categories (completion percentage, TD/INT, Grading) they measured.
Jason Campbell was blitzed with the sixth highest percentage at 43.3 percent. As a joint entity, Brason (Grad + Campbell) were blitzed on 47.7 percent of pass attempts, and that would place them behind only Joe Flacco for most frequently blitzed QB.
Given the Raiders weak pass blocking on the offensive line I am surprised to see that teams weren't more content to sit back while trying to get more pressure with just a four man rush. As with anything in football there are countless things at play. Jump over for more....
The Raiders seven step drop and deep passing attack certainly leaves them more vulnerable to a blitz than west coast offenses. The Raiders were 24th in passing attempts and 4th in rushing attempts. That means the Raiders have a higher percentage of passing plays coming in obvious passing situations than most teams. These downs are naturally going to come with a higher percentage of blitzes by the defense.
None of these factors are likely to change in 2011. So, Jason Campbell better be able to handle it. Let's take a look at how he did last season.
Campbell's performance while being blitzed was noticeably better than Bruce's. Campbell is ranked 22nd with a 56.1 completion percentage while being blitzed. This is very close to his 59 percent completion percentage on all passes. He threw six touchdowns and four interceptions against a blitz. That was good for the 18th best ratio and again remarkably similar to non-blitz numbers. He threw seven touchdown and four interceptions while not being blitzed.
Campbell's QB rating while being blitzed was noticeably lower than his season rating. On the season he had an 84.5 rating, but while facing a blitz it was just 60.6. PFF did not rate QBs on their rating though and decided to tie it in with their grade. They use many factors to compile there grades. Campbell would not be punished for throwing the ball away, and credited for scrambles etc.... He graded out to be the 18th best QB in terms of grades while being blitzed.
These are decent numbers for Campbell against the blitz. Especially considering the Raiders are not exactly adept at picking them up.