Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott has been sacked 45 times this season, the most in the entire league. There’s been much consternation on a weekly basis about this. Most casual observers link a quarterback sack with poor line play, but that is not always the case.

Assigning blame is a subjective matter as even thee best minds around cannot agree on who is at fault.

The madness that comes with going through and diagnosing these and assigning blame could turn a sane man into a monster.

There could be an endless amount of ways to assign blame but here this is broken down into four categories:

Prescott’s fault

Protection issues

Scheme or coverage sacks

FedExField.

Yes, FedExField gets its own category.

Prescott attempted to scramble on one of the sacks, but fell over on his own, which should be attributed to the high school field Washington plays on and the turf monsters it breeds.

Sacks attributed to Prescott are those where he clearly had an opportunity to either hit a receiver, avoid the rush more effectively (even if temporarily) or throw the ball away.

The opportunity to hit a receiver does not mean a receiver on the opposite side of his read was open so he somehow should have magically hit him. Without knowing the progression on that individual play that would be irresponsible. Even if a critic, know Prescott cannot hit what he does not see.

Rush avoidance and general pocket management is a need for improvement in the offseason, and there are many instances where simply stepping up or sliding in either direction would have avoided a sack. Instead, many times Prescott defaults to the spin to his left.

The offensive line gets assigned blame when it’s unable to hold its blocks for the duration necessary to deliver a pass plus a hitch. Miscommunications with protections that allow sacks on the inside were included as well. Sacks that came on play-action bootlegs were attributed to scheme.

Scheme and coverage sacks were easier to attribute. If a route concept was ill-prepared to beat a certain coverage, or Cowboys receivers were blanketed by man coverage it was chalked as a scheme/coverage sack. If the Cowboys found themselves attempting to run longer routes on long third downs, that fell into this category as well.

Who’s to blame?

Prescott – 16

Protection/Offensive Line – 14

Scheme/Coverage – 14

FedExField – 1

Three of the sacks assigned to Prescott came in scrambles where, instead of just tossing a ball out-of-bounds, he inexplicably just faded out of bounds for a loss. Protection and offensive line issues have been slightly overrated some.

Aside from blocking Ryan Kerrigan, La’el Collins’ ability to protect Prescott this season has been fine for the most part. The biggest issues have come from Cam Fleming filling in for Tyron Smith and the two players who’ve played the left guard spot this season.

The scheme and coverage sacks are the most frustrating, as they are the most avoidable. Now, the longer down-and-distance sacks felt unfair to attribute to Prescott, so those few get cut a break and are added to this category.

For others, one will find it difficult not to throw their head through their computer screen. Watching five receivers all turning with their hands out while a defender shoves a dollar bill into their belt can make even the most even-keeled fan fume.

Pro Football Focus is widely used – and widely criticized – by many in the football world. It’s usefulness as a collector of data is unprecedented. The NFL’s Next Gen Stats are very good, but the quantity of analysis on PFF is outstanding.

But this particular number is subjective. There is no computer around that can assign blame for a sack. Everyone sees things differently.

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