Gildon closing in on sacks record
LATROBE – The great Deacon Jones, the unofficial all-time NFL sacks leader, once described a sack as “the demolition of a city.” And Jason Gildon, the official all-time Pittsburgh Steelers sacks leader, remembers bringing down the city of Miami.
“I had an opportunity to sack Dan Marino,” he said. “That was my first sack. All of them are nice, but I remember that one the most.”
Unofficially, Gildon needs 11 sacks to tie former defensive end L.C. Greenwood for the team’s all-time record of 73.5. Also ahead of Gildon is Hall-of-Famer Joe Greene, who had 66 unofficial career sacks. Gildon has 62.5 sacks and realizes he’s in heady company.
“It feels good to be associated with some of those great guys who played here in Pittsburgh,” he said. “And you know, you take it in stride.”
But will fans of the great Steel Curtain? The defense that drove the Steelers to four NFL championships in the 1970s was perhaps the most dominant in league history, but sacks weren’t considered an official NFL statistic until 1982. The Steelers’ public relations staff, however, feels confident that its research is reliable.
“They kept track of quarterbacks being tackled for a loss throughout the 1960s and 1970s,” said Dave Lockett, the assistant to PR boss Ron Wahl. “We went through all of those old boxscores to come up with our sacks numbers.”
While some may question the validity of the old statistics, others may question the merits of Gildon, who’s often considered a one-dimensional pass rusher. Then again, rushing the passer is one of the most important tasks in the game.
“Jason is a very good pass rusher,” said Steelers defensive coordinator Tim Lewis, who ran down Gildon’s attributes: “Feel, instinct, technique, speed, power, the whole ball of wax. He’s got the size to power rush the smaller guys; he’s got the speed, quickness and strength to get around the bigger guys. He understands the angles he’s got to take to get there. This game is a game of leverage and a game of angles and he understands all of those. He knows where he fits. He knows when to take a chance and when not to. He’s got very powerful hands so that once he gets them on you it’s hard for a quarterback to escape and therefore he can pull him down even if he just gets a piece of him.”
Gildon is the Steelers’ strong-side outside linebacker, a position from which his predecessor, Kevin Greene, accumulated 35.5 sacks in three seasons, leading the team each year. Gildon moved into the starting lineup in 1996 and his seven sacks finished second to Chad Brown’s 13. Gildon’s total of five sacks in 1997 was second to Carnell Lake’s six, but Gildon has led the team every year since then. Over the last four years, Gildon has averaged 11.3 sacks per season.
“I think the key has been just coming in under the circumstances and being able to play behind and with some great linebackers since I’ve been in Pittsburgh,” Gildon said.
Gildon isn’t the only pass rusher with the Steelers, a team that tied its 1994 franchise record with 55 last season. With all but one player back, and additional speed projected at inside linebacker with James Farrior, the team record could fall sometime around the time Gildon breaks the individual record.
“If you look at all the sacks we missed last year,we should’ve been well over 70,” said strong safety Lee Flowers. “Since we’re not going to change anything on our defense, and we only lost Earl [Holmes], and Kendrell [Bell] is only getting better, I would imagine the total would have to go up.”
Lewis agreed, but offered an additional reason why he believes the sack total will increase.
“From a scheme standpoint, we’ve created some new things, some wrinkles here and there,” Lewis said. “Really, really dynamic things.”
Tell more.
“Oh,” he said, “it will blow your mind.”
One change expected to increase the sacks total is that Lewis will keep Bell on the field on passing downs, either as an end or a second inside linebacker to Joey Porter. Lewis likes what he’s seen of those two blitzing the middle on passing downs. But there are more schematic changes.
“The Okie stuff,” Lewis said of the base defense. “We’ve expanded and expounded and created. The assistant coaches have done an outstanding job. It will be a lot of fun.”
Lewis, of course, wouldn’t give away the government secrets, and he did credit the offense for putting opponents in so many “catch-up situations” last season. He also dismissed the fall-off in sacks late last season. To beat the Steelers’ pass rush, several late-season opponents had their quarterbacks taking shorter drops.
“People kind of took that ball and ran,” Lewis said. “But really, the fact of the matter is sacks are like everything else. They come and go as the season goes, and it’s not necessarily because people short-dropped us or rolled out. Sacks are kind of funny. Sometimes it’s all about match-ups.”
And other times it’s about overcoming an entire city.