“It’s always good to show up on the stat side in games,” Clarke said. “You just want to make sure you’re doing everything you’re supposed to do responsibility-wise within the defense, and stats like sacks always add on.”
Bengals defensive coordinator Paul Guenther had said during the preseason this would be an important year for players like Clarke and Margus Hunt because, by Year 3, the coaches should be seeing more out of them.
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Clarke, who had just one half-sack in his first two seasons, said his increased production early this season is the result of both opportunity and improvement. Through the first two games, he was playing 15.9 percent of the snaps on defense (23 of 145) after getting in on 12.4 percent of snaps last year (134 of 1,085)and just 5.7 percent in 2014 (62 of 1,092).
“I think it was a little bit of both,” Clarke said. “… I’ve been earning more snaps since my rookie year just by going out and earning my play and just going out and working hard in practice and the offseason and things like that.”
Sacks weren’t easy to come by Sunday. The Bengals got to Broncos quarterback Trevor Siemian twice while mainly using a four-man rush, rather than blitzing, and Siemian was getting rid of the ball pretty quickly or eluding trouble with his legs. Clarke said it’s hard to get to a quarterback like that, but it’s a point of pride when the defensive line does.
“Paul has the most confidence in his front four guys, in his whole defense, but especially the front four guys, so that’s our goal is to go out there and make it to where he doesn’t have to call any blitzes,” Clarke said. “If we can just take the defense on our back and do it, that’s our goal.”
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