Seahawks MVP for game ten: Mister Jadeveon Clowney
The Seahawks had an incredible battle against the 49ers. If it hadn’t been for Jadeveon Clowney, they wouldn’t have been in the game.
The Seahawks made a huge statement tonight, handing the 49ers their first loss of the season. It only took them their third possession of overtime to do it, but they came out on top. Seattle has plenty of heroes to thank for the win, but none played as big a role as Jadeveon Clowney.
I’m sure there are plenty of 12s who are closing their screens right now in disgust. “How can you not pick DangeRuss?!?” Yeah, I hear you, but let’s be real here. I could make Russell Wilson my MVP for every game of the season. I think it’s only fair to recognize this is a team sport, no matter how great Number Three is. Although tonight, Jadeveon Clowney was as close as you can come to a one-man defense.
Clowney only had one sack in the game, but that’s incredibly misleading. The much-maligned (and justly so) Seahawks defensive line came up with four sacks. Tre Flowers added the first sack of his career, but Clowney applied pressure on every other sack tonight. He added almost every defensive stat you can think of. Take a deep breath before you read this list. In addition to his sack, Clowney had five tackles, five quarterback hits, and ten pressures. He also forced a fumble, recovered another and just for fun, finished off that play by taking it to the house. I mean, look at him destroy the Niners line here:
https://twitter.com/PFF/status/1194096960208359434
Let me remind you, the Texans are paying half his salary this season. The two players the Seahawks shipped to Houston have a total of three tackles and two quarterback hits. I’ve said it before, but John Schneider is a pretty good GM. Look at it this way. The Texans basically paid for the Seahawks to climb right back into the NFC West title hunt. Thanks, idio – sorry, that wasn’t very nice. Thank you from the bottom of my heart, Texans.
Next. Hawks win in terrific overtime battle. dark
Some fans have been critical of Clowney’s level of play this season. No one has been a harsher critic than Clowney himself. Coming into the game, he just had two sacks and seven quarterback hits. But as our Geoff Shull wrote in his excellent piece on a possible extension for Clowney, he’s drawn more double-teams than any other pass rusher in the league. You can’t blame him for the rest of the line not finishing. Tonight, it didn’t matter as Clowney destroyed the 49ers to win my MVP of the game.