There is a question that has been nagging at me since this debate about apportionment of blame began.  It was kind of touched on earlier, but not directly.

 

The argument has been made that the offensive line was not responsible for all of the sacks, and that Henne bears responsibility for a lot of them because he had time to get rid of the ball.

 

I do not challenge that proposition, but I wonder, on those passes where he had time to get rid of the ball to avoid a sack, did he have time to make a successful play?

 

If you take Lageman's analysis at face value and assign four of the ten sacks to Henne holding onto the ball, had he done so, would he have been getting rid of the ball just to avoid a sack?  If all four of those plays turned out to be mere incompletions, would the analysis for Henne be any better?  Would it matter that he was pressured into incompletions?

 

Now if he actually had time and open receivers on each of those plays and took the sacks, then to me that elevates his blameworthiness.

 

If not, I think it mitigates his blame to a certain degree.

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