Who likes excuses? You? Well, today’s your lucky day then! Clay Matthews has a bunch of them for you!
Grizzly Matthews has heard your griping about his production — or lack thereof — and Grizzly Matthews wants to tell you why he isn’t producing.
In case you were unaware, Grizzly Matthews has just 18 tackles and one sack. The former is the lowest total through the first six games since his rookie season and the latter his lowest ever.
So why, Grizzly Matthews?! Why?!
Excuse No. 1: Hey, nobody else is producing either!
“I mean, I can always get better,” Matthews said. “That goes without saying. But at the same time, sometimes you have to take a step back. I know a lot of times I’ll be judged based on my sack production, but if you look on this team, I think the most any one guy has is 2 1/2 (Mike Daniels).”
You don’t say?
Excuse No. 2: But somewhere, some big-name, highly-paid offensive player isn’t producing!
“I think everybody’s pretty spread throughout. With these offenses you see around the league, you see some of these big-name guys who are struggling, for lack of a better term, as well. But I don’t think you can put a number on how you influence an offense coming into each game and what they throw at you.”
Good theory…
Excuse No. 3: Confuse them with gibberish!
“I know you guys are looking for someone to blame,” Matthews said of the Tannehill run. “That’s kind of how the zone-read works, is kind of forcing them into one way or another and having those players react off it. It’s not ‘One guy is to blame,’ it’s having responsibilities to it.”
Interesting.
Excuse No. 4: Somehow, this stuff still isn’t quite clear!
“It’s hard to explain. We’re doing everything we need to this week to kind of make it as black and white as possible, as far as ‘This is this and this is that.’ That way there is no confusion throughout the game or in general.”
Ah, this IS this and that IS that. Yes. Yes.
So there you have it. It’s now clear why Grizzly Matthews isn’t producing.
It isn’t the groin injury, the scheme, his usage or the beard. It’s just, well… see above.