Broncos, Cardinals, Redskins Struggled to Pick Up Blitzes

Filed under: NFL Quarterbacks, NFL Analysis There's nothing scarier for a quarterback than an unblocked pass rusher. If you were a quarterback for the Broncos, Redskins or Cardinals in 2010, you had plenty of reasons to be frightened. Denver, Washington and Arizona were the only NFL teams to reach double digits in unblocked sacks. There are a couple of ways that a blitzer can pick up the easiest of easy sacks. The simplest explanation is that confusion along the offensive line (or among running backs assigned for blitz pickup) lets someone come free even though the blocking scheme should have accounted for him. On other plays, especially if the defense calls a corner blitz, the unblocked blitzer is the responsibility of the quarterback and wide receivers -- the quarterback has to recognize it and the receiver has to break off his route so that the QB can get rid of the ball before the blitzer arrives.