Josh Allen isn’t just difficult to sack.
He’s taken fewer than any quarterback in football this year.
The Buffalo star has been sacked just 14 times on the season, putting the Bills eight clear of Green Bay, the second-best team in that department.
The Broncos aren’t just good at sacking opposing quarterbacks.
They’ve generated more than any team in football this year.
Denver’s balanced attack led by Nik Bonitto and Jonathon Cooper has a franchise-record 63 sacks on the season, nine more than any other team in football.
That makes Allen and the Bills’ offensive front against Denver’s front seven one of the central points of tension Sunday when the teams square off in the Wild Card round of the playoffs.
If Buffalo can keep Denver’s disruptive defense at bay, the Broncos are in for a long afternoon. If Denver’s pass-rush gets revved up, though, it can help position the visitors to spring an upset.
Simply put: Sacks change games.
“There’s an emotional and psychological toll with a sack that you have to overcome,” Broncos coach Sean Payton said.
One of the Denver head coach’s favorite stats is sack differential, or the number of sacks your team generates compared to the number it takes.
The Broncos and Bills enter the postseason first and third, respectively, in differential. Denver easily paces the NFL at plus-39 and Buffalo checks in at plus-25, behind only the Broncos and Baltimore (plus-30).
For Denver, the sterling rate is driven by not only the league-leading number of sacks but combined with the fact that Bo Nix has been sacked just 24 times on the season.
“You can analytically assign points per drive and then you can analytically assign, hey, what do my points per drive look like after a sack?” Payton said. “Obviously, those numbers drop.”
The significance is stark.
Denver is right in the middle of the NFL pack in averaging 2.04 points per offensive possession on the season. However, on the 23 possessions that have featured a Nix sack this year, the Broncos have mustered just 23 points. So their scoring rate is less than half their season average when they take a sack.
They’ve scored points on 38.4% of their possessions overall, but just 21.7% of drives when taking a sack.
“Let’s say it’s (the equivalent of) an 8-yard penalty with a loss of down,” Payton said. “It just goes against trying to stay on schedule, it goes against getting to third-down numbers that are manageable.”
Those sorts of trends also show why the Bills have been so consistent offensively this year. They check in second in the NFL at 2.92 points per drive in part because of their balance and Allen’s overall ability, but also because they are rarely set back by sacks.
“The challenge is his size and strength,” Payton said of Allen. “You can spy him, but he’s one of those guys — Lamar is the same way. You can have a guy on Lamar and he’s got this stiff-arm that just keeps you at bay. Those big, physical–type athletes can create and stay on their feet.
“There’s a run (Allen) had last year in the postseason that was something. Populating the ball and coverage during the second act. The first act is the (drop). The second act is the unscripted. That’s the key.”
The Broncos’ defense leads the NFL at 1.61 points per drive allowed, in large part because they so frequently put teams behind the chains by disrupting the quarterback.
In a strength-vs.-strength matchup, then, part of the question is just how frequently the Broncos can get to Allen — and get him to the ground.
“Oh man, it’s huge for us,” outside linebacker Jonathon Cooper told The Post. “But I feel like we need to do a better job of taking the ball away. Sack-fumbles and stuff like that, that’s the next step that we need to take. As far as getting the pressure and getting sacks, we’re doing a really good job in that and we’ve just got to keep it up.”
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