So I'm looking through the league leaders in various NFL statistics, and when I get to sacks I'm shocked by one name: Connor Barwin. I watch all of the games every week, and yes, I've seen him get sacks. However, the Eagles defensive scheme irks me so badly that sometimes those sacks don't stick out as much as they should. I never would have guessed he would be second in the NFL right now with 12.5 sacks.
Can Connor Barwin steal the Defensive Player of the Year award?
Connor Barwin has 12.5 sacks and is leading a suddenly threatening Philadelphia Eagles defense. Retired NFL defensive end Stephen White says to keep an eye on the dark horse DPOY candidate.
Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
I went back through his weekly stats to make sure I hadn't overlooked him for a Hoss of the Week award. Turns out he did have one big weekend when he had 3.5 sacks, in Week 10, but I remembered it was against the Panthers, and they had some big dude from Canada out there at left tackle who didn't have a clue what he was doing. That's what you call a plus/minus situation. Like yeah, kudos to you, Barwin, for getting those sacks, but I'd expect about any starting defensive end/outside linebacker to have similar production against such green competition.
At the same time, it’s still just 3.5 sacks. Even if you took them all away, the guy would still have at least nine sacks this year, which would be pretty damned impressive in its own right.
Seeing Barwin's name on the leaderboard made me go back and watch some of the all-22, including the Eagles win Sunday over the hapless Tennessee Titans. Barwin had only two sacks on Sunday, but they were both legit situations where he had to beat somebody to get to the quarterback.
The first sack came on the Titans' first third down of the game with Tennessee needing 10 yards to make a first down. With Cole lined up inside him at defensive tackle between the left offensive guard and offensive tackle, Barwin lined up wide outside the left tackle, rookie Taylor Lewan, and initially rushed upfield to attract Lewan's attention. Cole ripped through the left guard Andy Levitre's shoulder in an effort to get to Lewan's back. A few steps upfield, Barwin stopped and looped inside of Levitre. Because Cole made such a hard move, Levitre could not see Barwin coming quick enough to pick him up. Barwin came right up the middle scot-free and damn near took Titans rookie quarterback Zach Mettenberger's head off on the sack.
If that description sounds familiar, it’s because they ran the Tex game I’m always talking about when referring to things my Bucs are shitty at doing. Cole and Barwin did a great job with it, and it resulted in him getting an early sack and forcing the Titans to punt.
Barwin’s second sack had me pretty hyped because he used a move that I used to love to try. He faked an inside rip and then executed a spin back outside around the left tackle. Not to be overly critical, I didn’t think he sold the inside rip enough, but enough is definitely relative since he obviously sold it enough to get a sack and cause a fumble. That is probably more a testament of the rookie Lewan’s technique on that particular play, but whatever, a sack is a sack is a sack, Holmes*.
Barwin has gotten a few of his sacks off blitzes where he was basically unblocked. That’s kind of cheating in my book, but he also has good enough moves to beat the average tackle one-on-one. Going forward, I’m going to make sure to pay closer attention to his play when watching the Eagles. This is already his best career season for sacks -- not bad for a guy in his sixth year and on his second team. Who knows what will happen, but if Barwin continues to rack up sacks and the Eagles continue to win, he might just be a dark horse candidate for Defensive Player of the Year.
*That is, any sack is a sack as long as you didn’t get it by beating some big backup Canadian dude to get them. I know it’s not necessarily consistent; sue me.
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