Demarcus Ware is Getting His Props
January 10, 2009
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Demarcus Ware
Demarcus Ware didn’t get the single season sack record. He was mighty close, only 2.5 sacks away at the beginning of the terrible loss to the Eagles that knocked the Cowboys out of playoff contention. Ware recorded zero sacks in that game, but his 20 sacks on the season were still enough to lead the NFL, 2.5 ahead of Miami’s Joey Porter and a full 4 sacks ahead of James Harrison of the Steelers. This is the fact that causes many fans to complain about Harrison’s selection as the NFL Defensive Player of the Year.
When you compare the stats, the two match up pretty well. Ware had more sacks, but Harrison had many more tackles. The 101 tackles that Harrison recorded is deceptive, though, because only 67 of those 101 were solo tackles. Ware had 69 solo tackles out of his 84 total. Those solo tackle numbers are so close as to make it a wash on that particular stat. Essentially, Harrison had a lot of help padding his tackle numbers while Ware did it more by himself.
| Demarcus Ware | James Harrison | |
| 20 | Sacks | 16 |
| 84 | Tackles | 101 |
| 69 | Solo Tackles | 67 |
| 0 | Safeties | 1 |
| 2 | Passes Deflected | 3 |
| 0 | Interceptions | 1 |
| 6 | Forced Fumbles | 7 |
| 0 | Fumbles | 1 |
All the rest of the numbers are so close that we can say that the two players are pretty even in their stats. Overall, Ware had more sacks and solo tackles, while Harrison had many more assisted tackles. Harrison’s extra forced fumble, the extra pass deflected and his 1 interception pretty well make up for the missing sacks.
So with all other things being even, we’re left with the simple fact that Pittsburgh made the playoffs largely because of Harrison, while the Cowboys did not. Because of that, I would have to agree with the choice of Harrison as Defensive POY. That doesn’t mean that Ware shouldn’t get recognition for what he did during the regular season, though, and that recognition is starting to come his way.
Both Ware and Harrison were selected to the 2008 AP All-Pro squad on the first team. Ware was the only Cowboy to make the first team (Witten made the second team). In addition, both Ware and Harrison were selected to start at the 2009 Pro Bowl. A new award to the NFL this year, the Butkus Award, is usually given to the best linebacker in college football. This year the presenters decided to expand and present an award to the best NFL linebacker as well and after a vote by 51 coaches, media and personnel people, Ware came out on top.
Ware counts six missed sacks during the course of the season that could have given him the single-season sack record if he had just focused on getting the QB down instead of, for instance, attempting to force a fumble.
“A legit six,” he said, “where maybe I would jump on the guy’s back and try and knock the ball out instead of tackling him. I missed [Washington's Jason] Campbell twice, [Philadelphia's Donovan] McNabb twice, [Pittsburgh's Ben] Roethlisberger once and the San Francisco quarterback [Shaun Hill) when he had a screen pass and I backed off.”
“I remember, believe me. I remember every single one of them.”
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