Austin Davis Can't Develop If Rams Offensive Line Continues to Leave Him Exposed

A funny thing happens when you look at the passing leaders for Week 5.

Atop the list is Peyton Manning, mostly because he’s Peyton Manning. Manning passed for 479 yards as his Denver Broncos beat the Arizona Cardinals and finished with a passer rating of 110.2. Around him on that weekly quarterback statistical roll call are many familiar names: Tony Romo, Drew Brees, Matt Ryan and Andrew Luck.

But directly below is a name that doesn’t belong: Austin Davis.

The St. Louis Rams quarterback passed for 375 yards during a loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. He also threw three touchdowns without an interception.

Which leads to a question that may not get answered anytime soon: How much better would Davis be if he received something that even remotely resembles consistent protection and wasn’t frantically escaping bodily harm on most of his dropbacks?

Davis has now been the Rams quarterback for three-and-a-half games this season (three starts, and he replaced Shaun Hill at halftime of Week 1). During those 14 quarters, he's already been sacked 10 times.

Worse, those sacks are coming in high volumes all at once. He was sacked four times by the Minnesota Vikings despite playing only the second half in that relief appearance, and Sunday the Eagles also crushed him four times.

Of the 10 quarterbacks who have already hit the double-digit sack mark, Davis has the second fewest dropbacks (if we exclude Chad Henne, as he's been benched).

	Sacks	Dropbacks	Dropback/sack	Passing yds/game	Yds/attempts
Matthew Stafford	17	204	12.0	279.4	7.8
Chad Henne	16	96	6.0	164.0	6.3
Ben Roethlisberger	15	196	13.1	273.0	7.7
Colin Kaepernick	13	181	13.9	222.6	7.4
Alex Smith	13	186	14.3	213.2	6.7
Jay Cutler	12	210	17.3	259.0	6.8
Aaron Rodgers	12	163	13.6	231.0	7.9
Cam Newton	11	148	13.5	245.8	7.6
Tom Brady	10	185	18.5	216.8	6.3
Austin Davis	10	156	15.6	282.2	7.9

Note two other important numbers there that show Davis’ effectiveness despite the relentless pressure. On a list that includes names like Matthew Stafford, Aaron Rodgers, Cam Newton and Tom Brady, Davis has the most passing yards per game and is tied for the most yards per attempt.

That means even while picking grass from his teeth, nose and other places where it shouldn’t be, Davis is still accumulating a whole lot of yardage—and doing it with accuracy while passing deep. Even better, 62.7 percent of Davis’ passing yards have come through the air, the second-highest rate in the league, according to Pro Football Focus (subscription required).

So let’s tweak the question we started out with: What would happen if his protection went from awful to even average? Likely more winning.

During the second half Sunday, Davis passed for 67 percent of his total yardage (252 yards) when the Rams went on a three-touchdown scoring run that fell just short of a comeback.

He led an offense that netted 466 total yards (the Rams’ second straight game with over 440 yards of offense), and 30 of those yards came through his scrambling. He also connected on four passes for 20-plus yards. Currently, his completion percentage rests at a fine 67.8.

But when under pressure that percentage drops by 13.8, according to PFF. What’s troubling is how quickly the pressure is getting to him, often forcing Davis to change his focus immediately after the snap.

A prime example came early in the loss to Philadelphia. It was the Rams’ second drive, and as was the case often throughout the afternoon, they faced a long third-down situation (needing 10 yards).

On an obvious passing down, Philadelphia's pass-rushers weren't concerned about the run. Davis was lined up in the shotgun with running back Benny Cunningham to his right. Cunningham didn’t stay back as a blocker, and ran out of the backfield as a check-down option instead.

NFL Game Rewind

That extra body would have been nice, because trusting the five guys up front to do their only job ended badly.

The Eagles showed blitz, initially overloading the left side with four potential pass-rushers. That gave them a numbers advantage, which led to a pre-snap adjustment from Davis and some confusion along the line. Then they backed out of it and charged ahead with only a standard four-man rush.

The confusion came from that extra rusher who wasn’t a rusher at all. DeMeco Ryans sold the blitz after the snap by sprinting toward an opening gap, drawing the attention of guard Davin Joseph. It was brief but still plenty long enough to take Joseph’s eyes away from where they could have been: on defensive tackle Fletcher Cox and helping overmatched center Scott Wells.

NFL Game Rewind

Cox already had penetration into the pocket and was directly in the area Davis was looking to step up into. Davis then had to spin and escape him, which is when the end of this play started. By that time, linebacker Trent Cole had also powered past tackle Rodger Saffold after that side of the line failed to adjust to a stunt.

Less than two seconds elapsed between when the ball was snapped and when Davis’ view looked like this…

NFL Game Rewind

That’s a quarterback who has no opportunity for success on a third-down conversion attempt. The result: a loss of 10 yards.

Later the Rams were victimized by deception again. This time they lost a scoring opportunity, the ball and nearly another quarterback.

After a Nick Foles interception, the Rams lined up on Philly’s 5-yard line. It was 3rd-and-goal, and St. Louis had a chance to capitalize on a turnover and narrow what was already a 13-point gap early in the second quarter.

But where exactly was the pressure coming from?

NFL Game Rewind

The Eagles had six potential pass-rushers at the line of scrimmage, all shifting and waiting until the last possible second to show that hand. There could have been a pre-snap adjustment or a hot read to avoid what was coming next. Instead, more confusion followed, and no one laid a fingernail on Vinny Curry.

NFL Game Rewind

Davis was turfed and so was the ball, because holding onto a football doesn’t happen when 280 pounds of human is sprinting at you untouched. It was a pretty painful way to erase a scoring chance.

The quarterback has played his part in the Rams' pressure problems, as he may have there. Davis is preparing for only his fourth career start in Week 6, and there are exotic shifts and blitzes he simply doesn’t have enough experience to recognize and adjust to before the pain train starts chugging.

Free rushers teeing off is how you lose both games and quarterbacks. Regardless of the cause, it’s a problem that needs to be fixed fast if the Rams hope to avoid sinking further into the NFC West basement.

Over the next four weeks, they face a pass-rushing gauntlet with two games against the 49ers, one against the Seahawks and one in Kansas City, when they’ll have to stop Justin Houston (tied for the league lead in sacks).

By the end of that stretch, we'll know if Davis will be given an opportunity to develop or if he’ll instead spend the season trying to keep his head aligned in the proper position.