Clay Matthews Is An Exceptional Tackler

The Green Bay Packers defense is very good at avoiding moments when a good play by the offense turns into a big one. They're not flawless, that's an unreasonable expectation, but when they're preventing big plays, it's often due to sound tackling.



Aaron Schatz at Football Outsiders took a closer look at broken tackles in 2010 and one Packer was at the top of the list with zero broken tackles and 53 made tackles for the season:

Don't make too much out of the fact that our game charters did not record Clay Matthews with a single broken tackle. There's a good chance we missed one at some point. What's important is that he had very few broken tackles, possibly zero.

Agreed. While that stat is impressive, and no other Packer was listed with such a low rate, I think it's just as important that no Packer made the list with the highest broken tackle rate. Preventing big plays is a responsibility of the entire defense. They all have to prevent the overall scheme from breaking down.

That's a good point by the Football Outsiders guy. Clay's tackling tends to get overlooked because he is so good in all other aspects of the game. I had forgotten about it myself.

I think Bishop and Peprah did very well as tacklers, which was one reason the defense improved when they replaced Barnett and Burnett. Not that Barnett was a bad tackler, but I think Bishop was better, and Peprah was a lot better than Burnett. Woodson and Williams also hold their own in this department, especially considering that good cover corners are often weak tacklers.

Originally Posted by: Greg C. 

I gave you a slapnuts on that one Greg. I'll take a guy like Peprah over the Matador Sharper any day. That said, I expect Burnett to take his starting job back if we ever get to training camp.

Originally Posted by: DakotaT 

So slapnuts is a GOOD thing? I don't understand this modern Internet lingo. I'm still proud of myself for having figured out ROFLMAO. Anyway, thanks--I think.

Originally Posted by: Greg C. 

So slapnuts is a GOOD thing? I don't understand this modern Internet lingo. I'm still proud of myself for having figured out ROFLMAO. Anyway, thanks--I think.

Originally Posted by: Greg C. 

Slapnuts are those applaud points awarded for a good post. So yes it's a good thing. Personally, I think it's kind of gay, but whatever.

Originally Posted by: DakotaT