I noticed something odd in the box score this week. It was defensive end Mike Daniels’ stat line.
It looked something like this (depending on where you get your stats): 8 tackles, 1 for loss, 2 QB hits, 1 hurry.
Nothing gaudy there with sacks or turnover plays, but a damn solid and active effort. There’s a guy who was disruptive.
What jumps out are those eight tackles, seven of which were solo.
Inside linebackers and safeties are supposed to make eight tackles a game. Guys who play 3-4 defensive end are not.
Guys who play 3-4 defensive end are supposed to occupy blockers so the guys behind them can fill gaps and make tackles, but Daniels just had one of those games. He beat his man so often, he was borderline dominant.
So why welcome back?
Because as good as Daniels was against the Rams, he was just as invisible against the 49ers the week before.
Look at that stat line and you’ll see nothing but goose eggs. Seriously, Daniels didn’t register a single statistic against San Francisco. It’s as if he didn’t even play the game.
So what happened this week?
We couldn’t say exactly, but we imagine Daniels is well aware of his play. Meaning he knew he sucked it up in week 4 and came out with something to prove in week 5.
If the Packers could get that sort of production from Daniels every week, their fairly stout defense would be even better.
As it is, even with the no-show in San Francisco, Daniels is on pace for a career season.
At his present rate, Daniels will finish with 57 tackles and eight sacks. That would best his current career highs of 41 tackles (2014) and 6.5 sacks (2013). He’s also notched his first career forced fumble this season.
Part of us is like, “Well, typical. It is a contract season for the guy.” And the other part is, “Mike Daniels is turning into a beast!”
We’d like to forget about the contract year and just go with the latter. However, Daniels needs to show up on the stat sheet every week and prove that week 4 was the exception and week 5 is much closer to the rule.
I think, and hope some of these guys are hungry for Super Bowl rings, Randall Cobb, Clinton Dix, Easy Eddie, Micah Hyde, just to name a few, and last year was too bitter for a repeat.
His demeanor alone counts for a lot. He takes no shit, expects greatness from himself and everyone else, and treats gameday like a prototypical soldier heading off to war. In short, everything this defense need
and he’s found one hell of a running mate with Raji
That’s my boy Mike right here. Kill’em
He seems to have bad games where he makes little impact but then comes back with a monster performance. He didn’t do much against Chicago in week 1 and then played lights out against Seattle and KC. Then nothing against the 49ers and then a beast with St. Louis. I’m sure that the more the year goes the easier it will be for him to perform awesome at all times. Raji being healthy really helps him out with it.
Sign this guy already so we don’t have to endure a third offseason in a row of contract madness. Someone will offer him a higher salary than GB but will he pull a Cobb? I doubt it…
Stats don’t tell this guy’s story. He shows up in plays all the time just fucking shit up. He provides an attitude that nobody else on the defense except maybe Matthews has, and can intimidate. I think the D as a whole would degrade significantly without him.
Amen MMK