Redemption, or not?
Finally, Matthews and Packers get to Kaepernick.
Linebacker sets tone with pursuit, relentless pressure “Clay Matthews was a big part of the plan and he delivered. I thought Clay played another great game.”
Coach Mike McCarthy
Santa Clara, Calif. — There are times you just have to take a man at his word. So when Clay Matthews said this is not a season of redemption for him or the Green Bay Packers defense, you have to believe him.
But their actions would seem to indicate otherwise.
The early part of the schedule provided the Packers an opportunity to confront the two teams and their offensive stars who caused them to clean out their lockers and reflect on how such a promising season ended so painfully each of the past three years.
In Week 2, they dispatched the Seattle Seahawks, the team that beat them on the final play of last season’s NFC Championship Game, suffocating running back Marshawn Lynch and putting the clamps on quarterback Russell Wilson.
Then on Sunday, they finally delivered the beating they were never able to put on San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick in three previous games, two of them playoff losses. They crushed a helpless and defeated Kaepernick in a 17-3 victory at Levi’s Stadium Sunday.
Asked about exorcising those demons, Matthews said it was more important to the media than to the Packers that redemption was achieved.
“I can honestly tell you it’s not about individuals who beat us in those great games, it’s about opportunities that we missed out on,” Matthews said. “You look at the NFC championship, wild card, divisional games, those are opportunities where you lose and you go home.
“Obviously, you can point at where we fell short and the individuals who had great games and specifically it was the quarterback. The opportunity was here again.”
If it didn’t mean that much to Matthews to finally beat Kaepernick then he probably wouldn’t have kissed his biceps after a third-quarter sack, mocking the quarterback’s signature touchdown celebration. But, he said, that was just having some fun. “Not planned,” he said. Maybe, but through the first four weeks of the season Matthews has played like a man determined to be the difference in the Packers making it to the Super Bowl this year. Matthews was by no means alone in holding the 49ers to 191 total yards and Kaepernick to a 55.4 passer rating.
His sack, two tackles (one for loss), and single quarterback hit were modest statistics, but his constant pressure blasting into the middle of the 49ers’ offense and his relentless pursuit all over the field set the tone.
“Clay’s been doing everything for us,” quarterback Aaron Rodgers said.
Defensive coordinator Dom Capers’ use of Matthews both at inside and outside linebacker has been possible because there are now players capable of clamping down other areas of the field when the Packers star is off doing his thing.
Over the past two weeks, the Packers have 13 sacks and the numbers have been spread around. Against the 49ers, outside linebacker Nick Perry led everyone with two sacks and Matthews, Julius Peppers, Jayrone Elliott and Mike Neal all had one apiece.
The previous week, end Mike Daniels and linebacker Joe Thomas joined Matthews, Perry, Elliott and Neal in taking down Kansas City quarterback Alex Smith seven times.
With six more Sunday, the Packers now have 17 in four games, which when the week’s final stats are tallied should put the Packers in the top three or four in the NFL. At this rate, they would finish the year with 68 sacks, which would blow away the franchise record of 52 set in 2001.
“We’ve been on a hot streak, no matter what you want to call it,” Neal said. “We’ve just had a good pass rush and we’ve got a defense that’s playing hungry. The biggest thing is being able to stop the run.
“We’ve been able to stop the run early in games and getting us in favorable positions. And the sacks come from that point on. We’ve been hustling and bustling and getting them.”
Against the 49ers, Capers had to come up with a way to stop Kaepernick’s running, which has dogged this defense in the past, including the 2012 divisional playoff game where he set an NFL quarterback record with 181 yards.
This San Francisco offense is a shell of the one that knocked the Packers out of the playoffs at Lambeau Field in January of 2014 and one of its remaining bright spots, star tight end Vernon Davis, was not in uniform because of a knee injury. Receivers Torrey Smith and Anquan Boldin are formidable targets and running back Carlos Hyde is an emerging runner, but the offensive line that used to push the defense around is all but gone. Thus, it wasn’t too hard for Capers to figure out what to do.
His primary target appeared to be stopping Hyde, just like it was stopping Matt Forte in Week 1, Lynch in Week 2 and Jamal Charles in Week 3. Hyde, who had 168 yards rushing against Minnesota here in Week 1, was held to 20 yards on eight carries.
“They brought safeties down, played a zero (no safeties) look a lot,” Hyde said. “They brought extra defenders in the box. It’s hard to run against eight or nine guys in the box.”
Kaepernick was able to produce 43 yards rushing on six carries in the first half, but Capers quickly found a way to shut that down and put the onus on the 49ers’ passing game. That was a good move because Kaepernick had trouble hitting stationary targets and appears to have lost his confidence.
He completed 13 of 25 passes for 160 yards and an interception, occasionally misfiring so badly that his passes flew out of bounds where nobody could get them. So, really all the Packers had to do was get Kaepernick down on the ground.
“Colin’s a special athlete and you have to tackle him,” coach Mike McCarthy said. “So, that really was the focus and when you get into the option phase of their offense they put in one-on-one situations and you have to win those.
“Clay Matthews was a big part of the plan and he delivered. I thought Clay played another great game.”
The Packers were happy to get out of Levi’s Stadium with a 17-3 victory given a short week following a Monday night game and three rather tough games to start the season. But with their defense playing the way it did and Kaepernick a shell of himself, the Packers weren’t going home again with a loss.