One of the things that jumped out at us after the Arizona game was the fact that Green Bay Packers linebacker Clay Matthews put up a zero in the box score. Not even a single tackle.
It turns out, that’s the second game in a row that’s happened.
Is Matthews injured? Is he loafing? Does he just all of the sudden suck? Enquiring minds want to know!
Well, the man himself doesn’t even have an explanation.
“I need to find a way to be more impactful. It’s not for a lack of not being where I’m supposed to and not doing my job,” Matthews said. “It’s just playmakers have to continue to show up. You can’t have games where you have one or zero tackles despite being disruptive. All you can really do is look forward to the next game.”
You know, Matthews is a master at moving his lips and not saying anything.
There’s one more example of that.
Anyway, the real problem here is the Packers can’t have Matthews disappearing for stretches anymore. When he was an outside linebacker who primarily rushed the passer, then okay. It’s not ideal, but most pass rushers don’t get sacks every week.
That’s understood.
Inside linebackers, which Matthews now is, are measured by tackles. It’s straight-up unacceptable for one of your starting inside backers to go an entire game — forget about two — without a tackle.
That’s their primary responsibility.
Tackle the ball carrier!
This is an indication of one of two things.
Has Matthews play dropped off? We’d say it has. He played much better and was much more impactful in the second half of 2014. So that’s part of the problem.
A potentially worse problem is opposing offenses have figured out how to game plan for Matthews. And that possibility raises a whole other set of potential issues. Either the defensive staff doesn’t know how to put Matthews in position to make plays or Matthews was never really that good to begin with.