Why Does Peyton Manning Take So Few Sacks?

(Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images)

“You throw the ball so fast,” Shaun Phillips said to Peyton Manning after a play in Week 12 of the 2008 regular season. 

Phillips should know what he is talking about being both a player with at least seven sacks in each of his previous four seasons and a player who has failed to sack Peyton Manning in four consecutive games from 2007 to 2008 despite 190 pass attempts from Manning.

Another player who should know a thing or two is Jared Allen, who has had at least 7.5 sacks in each of his five seasons in the league, including three seasons with at least 11, and only has one sack in two games against Manning in 2007 and 2008 despite 74 pass attempts from Manning. 

When asked to rate the toughest to sack quarterbacks in the league in 2007 by the Kansas City Star, Allen said of Manning: “He just gets rid of the ball so fast. Not only are you rushing against a tackle, you're rushing against him.”

Perhaps by coincidence or not, both of these players faced Manning in the 2007 regular season during a three-game stretch in which the Colts offense was plagued by injuries of ridiculous proportions.

During that stretch, the Colts played with as many as two or even three starting offensive linemen unable to play due to injury, which included both offensive tackles, Tony Ugoh and Ryan Diem.  Adding insult to injury, one or both of the primary backups at offensive tackle, Charlie Johnson and Daniel Federkeil, were unable to play due to injury as well.

Making things even worse, the Colts were without wide receivers Marvin Harrison and Anthony Gonzalez—even tight end Dallas Clark at one point—and a backup wide receiver Roy Hall as well.  This forced the Colts to go to the practice squad to sign players to run patterns with Reggie Wayne and lowly backup wide receiver Aaron Moorehead.

Manning’s numbers certainly suffered as a result of the barrage of injuries, including an infamous six-interception game against the Chargers, and only picked up upon Anthony Gonzalez’s return in the last of the three games—but how often was he sacked?

Manning was only sacked eight times over the three-game span in 128 drop backs (pass attempts + sacks) for a sack rate of 6.3 percent.  Compare that to the league average sack rate in 2007 of 6.1 percent while considering the injuries to the Colts offensive line and receivers.  Also consider that two of the three defenses faced were ranked in the Top 10 for sacks that season and had a pass rusher with at least 12.5 sacks on the season.

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