By most accounts, pro football began to soften in the months leading up to the 1978 season. Defensive backs were no longer permitted to clobber receivers anywhere on the field, and offensive linemen were allowed to use their hands to fend off oncoming pass rushers. The age of defense was going to be no more; the new era of football a pass-friendly era had been set in motion.
But 1978 did not bring the drastic changes to the offensive landscape that most predicted it would. Teams passed the ball 26.4 times per game on average, as compared to 25.0 the year prior, and the league net average per attempt rose from just 5.2 to 5.5. Soft or not, the 1978 season was by no means an aerial party.
Instead, what can be said about that campaign is that the offensive-friendly rules attracted more defensive ingenuity. Said John Turney, a member of the Pro Football Researchers Association and one of the foremost experts on sack counts, "It was a seminal moment in football history. Teams started to blitz more, and linebackers and defensive backs got more sacks than in previous years."
Turney does not consider 1978, as a whole, one of the NFL's greatest sack seasons. It gave defenders two more games to work with thanks to the new 16-game schedule, and Turney said fewer defenders posted 15-plus sacks than had done so in the seasons prior. What is remarkable, however, is the success had that season by a pair of relative NFL newcomers Lions rookie Al "Bubba" Baker and Packers second-year standout Ezra Johnson. [img_r]https://www.beckett.com/images/pgitems/293840201.jpg[/img_r]
As most fans know, the quarterback sack did not become an official statistic until the strike-shortened 1982 season. Prior to that, teams kept their own totals, leading to much speculation as to who were the great sack artists of the 1960s and '70s when defense dominated the game.
Deacon Jones has argued he had 26 sacks in 1967 a total matched only by Coy Bacon in 1976. According to Turney, who examines the official play-by-play sheets to compile his data, both of those season totals are suspect due to teams awarding a full sack for each half-sack. By his estimation, neither player had more than Michael Strahan's official NFL record of 22, set in 2001. "Deacon would still tell you he had 26, but (Rams coach) George Allen was counting everything," Turney said.
New information discovered by Turney, however, may change history at least in an unofficial point of view.
Baker was said to have recorded 23 sacks in 1978, Johnson 20. Up to now, Turney could only confirm 21 for Baker and 17 for Johnson. Turney believes that new information provided for a five-sack game against the Buccaneers confirms Baker did indeed have 23 sacks during his rookie campaign.
What is perhaps unfortunate about this announcement is that even well researched data will not have an effect on the record books, nor will it bring any more respect to the careers of either Baker or Johnson, his runner-up in the sack race that season.
Today's elite pass rushers are the stars of the defense. They are high-dollar guys who attract endorsement deals and magazine covers. Baker and Johnson? Despite the 28 years of NFL service between them, without having the ability to take ownership of the numbers they earned neither is much more than a footnote to their respective era.
It has been said the 6-foot-4, 250-pound Johnson possessed 4.5 speed in the 40-yard dash. Like Baker, he also was unofficially credited with a five-sack game in 1978 (Week 1 against Detroit). But forget about his place in NFL history. Even in Green Bay he has been largely forgotten; most Packers fans remember him more for eating a hot dog during a 1980 preseason loss to Denver than they do his rare speed or superb sophomore season. With his pre-1982 sack totals in place, there is a good chance Johnson and not Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila would stand as the team's all-time leader in the category.
Baker began his career with Associated Press Defensive Rookie of the Year honors and three trips to the Pro Bowl. With his sack totals from his first four seasons, Baker would not only own the single-season NFL mark arguably the most desirable defensive record to hold but would probably rank among the top 20 all time.
In that fall of change in 1978, the league was only taking notice of how great each NFC Central pass rusher was. Nearly three decades later, the numbers that never were are starting to catch up.