The theme that you’re going to hear ad nauseam this week is the quality of the 49ers defense. I admit, the 49ers front seven is some of the best in the league. That crew wrecks a lot of what opposing offenses try to do.
San Francisco was eighth in quarterback hits this year with 103, while being 29th in blitz percentage at 19.8. Basically, the 49ers can make quarterbacks uncomfortable without using a lot of effort.
But when it comes to team defense, the Packers have been one of the best at reliability. The reason why this defense has been much better than defenses of the past few years is because everybody knows their job. Nobody is trying to play hero ball and everybody is trying to achieve the same goal.
Case in point is tackles. Remember when tackling was a terrible looking wart that nobody wanted to look at? There isn’t a lot of hand tackling with this unit and it’s proven with the second-least total of missed tackles at 88.
And that’s all due to the man in the middle. De’Vondre Campbell made everyone’s jaw hit the floor with a career year. The sixth-year inside linebacker had a career year by allowing a passer rating of 74.9 with a missed tackle percentage of just 2.7 percent. Amazingly, he wasn’t chosen for the Pro Bowl, but proved his worth with a first-team All Pro selection, which also proves how important the inside linebacker position is.
The other player that has been vital to Green Bay’s defensive success has been Rashan Gary. After having a good sophomore season last year, he improved by leaps and bounds this year and really broke out. Gary totaled 20 hurries and 10 sacks. Gary was also one of two Packers — along with Tyler Lancaster — with a missed tackle percentage of zero. Think about that. Gary played 63 percent of the defensive snaps and still didn’t have one missed tackle.
Reliability is the reason the Packers are here. You can count on these guys to always do their job. Even Kevin King, which has been the butt of jokes among many Packers fans, has a missed tackle percentage of 3.3. And Rasul Douglas, who proved to everyone that he deserves a lucrative contract ASAP, has the third-lowest passer rating against with a 44.5.
It’s tremendous that Za’Darius Smith and Jaire Alexander will be returning after lengthy injuries. But the strength of this unit this season has been the sum of its parts.
There aren’t a lot of teams that can beat an unbeaten team in the desert with a player that was picked up off Arizona’s practice squad.
A lot of the credit goes to defensive coordinator Joe Barry, but credit also goes to the drive and determination of each person on defense. The Packers didn’t have Smith for 17 games, but still tallied 41 sacks. Dean Lowry had a career-high six sacks and Preston Smith tied his second-highest sack total of his career with nine.
The Packers didn’t have one defensive player that collected even close to as many Pro Bowl votes as Bosa. He may have led the NFC in voting but none of that matters.
The Packers really came together as a defensive unit this year. They trusted each other, relied on each other and became a real team. And the simple reason is because they didn’t have a choice. With all of the injuries and absences, if they weren’t marching in the same direction, this team would’ve been sunk weeks ago.
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Cory Jennerjohn is a graduate from UW-Oshkosh and has been in sports media for over 15 years. He was a co-host on “Clubhouse Live” and has also done various radio and TV work as well. He has written for newspapers, magazines and websites. He currently is a columnist for CHTV and also does various podcasts. He recently earned his Masters degree from the University of Iowa. He can be found on Twitter: @Coryjennerjohn