How the Green Bay Packers shut down San Francisco

Oct 4, 2015; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers quarterback

(7) is sacked by Green Bay Packers inside linebacker

(52) in the third quarter at Levi

Sack Dance

This team has been on quite a roll in the sack department.

This team has tended to make a point over the years at causing turnovers and generating sacks; the first part hasn’t come to fruition often, but the second definitely has.

Against Kansas City, they accumulated 7 on the night. They also had 2 from each of the previous two weeks. This 49ers team gave them another 6 for the books; for the year, they now have 17 total.

What’s better is that this is coming from not just one source, but the unit as a whole.

The first thoughts on who might be collecting sacks would obviously be Clay Matthews and Julius Peppers. In this game, they did add one each, but there were four others on the day — supplied by  Mike Neal, Jayrone Elliott, and Nick Perry (twice!).

That trend spreads to the rest of the season so far as well. Peppers leads the team (3.5) with Matthews right behind him (3.0), but the other 11.5 sacks come from six different guys; Perry (3), Mike Daniels (2.5), Elliott (2.0), Neal (1.5), Joe Thomas (1) and B.J. Raji (0.5) all have gotten in on the action.

These numbers are emblematic of a defense attacking on all cylinders and from all angles. This is especially promising to see since Matthews has been saddled as an inside linebacker on many downs; part of the worry about that move stemmed from wondering if his counterparts taking over his OLB pass-rushing snaps would be effective enough to make keeping him in the middle a viable move.

With the way the unit has enacted pressure throughout most of the year so far, it appears those fears should be officially quelched.

Next: Stopping The Run