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- Mar 19, 2019
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A year later, Matthews finished second to Pittsburgh’s Troy Polamalu for NFL Defensive Player of the Year after recording a career-high 13½ sacks. In the process, Matthews became the only Packer to record a double-digit sack total in each of his first NFL two seasons since sacks became an official stat in 1982.
Matthews, who had 11 sacks in 15 career playoff games, made one of the biggest plays of his career in Super Bowl XLV in forcing a fumble of Pittsburgh running back Rashard Mendenhall on the first play of the fourth quarter.
Taking over at the Green Bay 45, Aaron Rodgers engineered an eight-play, 55-yard touchdown drive to give the Packers a commanding two-score lead in the eventual 31-25 victory.
Midway through the 2014 season, Matthews agreed to move to inside linebacker to help solidify the Packers’ defense. In his debut against Chicago Bears on Nov. 9, Matthews racked up 11 tackles and a sack in a dominating 55-14 victory.
Matthews stayed inside for the next 1½ seasons, earning a second-team All-Pro selection in 2014 and back-to-back Pro Bowl appearances.
“Shoot, I don’t know if I was prepared for what I was getting into,” said Matthews in an interview with packers.com last season. “When you change from outside linebacker to inside linebacker it’s a different world. Dom (Capers) took care of me at the time as far as putting in a select play-calling list of blitzes and plays I was very comfortable with. … I think they found out if you put me in the middle and let me roam, then good things are going to happen.”
Matthews moved into sole possession of the franchise’s all-time sack record on Sept. 28, 2017, earning a strip sack of Chicago quarterback Mike Glennon on the Bears’ first offensive play.
Two plays later, Rodgers connected with Randall Cobb on a 2-yard touchdown. Matthews finished with three tackles and three quarterback hits in a 35-14 victory.
“That was pretty cool just for the fact of how often are you able to get a sack-forced fumble that you’re able to recover on the very first play on defense, which set up a 14-0 lead,” Matthews said. “At that point, we can kind of let the dogs loose. That’s what made it all the more meaningful, breaking the record and getting after them early.”