The Buccaneers have gone more than 8 quarters without a sack and are on pace for only 20 sacks this season.
For those who hate stats, 30 sacks in a season is a terrible number. The Bucs fell to recording only 37 sacks last season and spent the offseason working to overhaul their pass rush.
Yeah, yeah, pressures. Stop. Sacks are are important. They greatly impact the game and the fallen quarterback’s psyche.
Tampa Bay’s last sack was from edge rusher Anthony Nelson with about five minutes remaining in the loss to the Vikings in Week 3.
So here come the Steelers and Hall of Fame quarterback Aaron Rodgers. Joe did the research and found that Rodgers is 26-4 in games in which he was the starter but was not sacked. And he’s 1-0 in the postseason when not sacked.
But wait, Joe, aren’t those Rodgers stats mostly old and useless? Not quite. Last year, Rodgers played four games for the Steelers in which he was not sacked. His record was 3-1. The only loss was 33-31 to the Bengals; Rodgers threw four touchdown passes in that game.
Are the Bucs capable now of winning a shootout with rookie QB Jalon Daniels. Joe can’t go there. So it’s a very safe bet the Bucs’ season will come crashing down if they can’t bury Rodgers at least once on Sunday.
When sacked only once in a game, Rodgers’ has a 69.3 percent winning percentage. That was the case yesterday when Pittsburgh beat the Colts 34-22.