Trench Battle Between Aldon Smith and Russell Okung Critical in NFC West Race

When he’s healthy and behaving, San Francisco 49ers outside linebacker Aldon Smith brings a combination of strength and burst off the line matched by few other pass-rushers in the NFL.

Whenever he hasn’t torn or broken something, Seattle Seahawks left tackle Russell Okung consistently seals off the blind side for his quarterback with his sturdy base and mobility.

On Thanksgiving night, the two titans of their respective positions will clash grills, with Smith often lined up across from Okung. Their individual battle has wide-ranging implications for the NFC West division title, the NFC wild-card race and two teams looking to avoid failed seasons.

The Smith and Okung faceoff is the most significant matchup between the 49ers and Seahawks, with cornerback Richard Sherman vs. wide receiver Anquan Boldin a close second.

Why? Because with two stonewalling run defenses likely to cancel each other out and two limping passing offenses (ranked 24th and 30th), a fight for field position is coming.

And nothing says favorable field position quite like repeated pressure. The kind that forces repeated failure.

In one corner, then, we have Smith and his 44 sacks over 45 career games. That includes two in Week 12 during only his second game back from a suspension, and his first game of the season that was in fact an entire game—or close to it, as he played only 77.1 percent of the 49ers’ defensive snaps in Week 11 and 94.6 percent Sunday in a win over the Washington Redskins.

As always, using sacks alone leads to only a half-truth about a pass-rusher and his effectiveness. Disruption is critical, as it forces the quarterback to abandon his reads and the timing of the passing game is altered.

Smith has been on the field for only 66 pass-rushing situations this season, according to Pro Football Focus (subscription required). However, he’s still recorded those two sacks along with seven hurries and four quarterback hits.

With how little Smith has played so far, it may be difficult to grasp just how quickly he’s returned to full crush mode. So let’s try to paint that picture of quarterback pain this way:

Player	Pass Rushing Snaps	Sacks	Hits	Hurries
Aldon Smith	66	2	4	7
Justin Houston	300	14	6	38
Elvis Dumervil	306	15	4	17

That’s Smith alongside the league’s sack leaders. Note the massive chasm between the pass-rushing snaps accumulated by Smith and the far greater opportunities for sacks, hurries and hits the other two have benefited from.

Then observe that Kansas City Chiefs outside linebacker Justin Houston is only two QB hits ahead of Smith, and their hurries per game are identical (3.5 each).

Even more impressively, Smith has matched Baltimore Ravens outside linebacker Elvis Dumervil in hits on 240 fewer snaps.

Of Smith’s 12 sacks in 2013 over 14 games including the playoffs, four came against the Seahawks. But only one of those sacks came with Okung in the game to do his protecting and pancaking. Smith took Wilson down twice after Okung left injured in Week 2, and one of his sacks during the NFC Championship Game came on a rollout—don’t do those to Smith’s side.

So in the other corner, there’s Okung, and you’ll notice something about his snap count too. Look at the really large number below first. Then take some time to process the zero beside it:

Player	Pass Blocking snaps	Sacks	Hits allowed
Russell Okung	338	0	2
Andrew Whitworth	371	0	1
Lane Johnson	309	0	1

Okung is currently one of only three tackles who haven’t allowed a single sack while being on the field for at least 50 percent of their team’s offensive snaps. And he’s done that while playing with a torn labrum after missing most of training camp and the preseason following surgery to repair a ligament in his big toe.

Staying healthy isn’t easy for Okung. At nearly the end of his fifth regular season, he's already missed 19 games. But when he’s in one piece, or at least sort of close to it, swatting away the league’s best pass-rushers is very much in his job description. And he’s pretty good at it.

Going a little further back, Okung has been a pass-blocker on 1,229 plays since the beginning of the 2012 season, per PFF (including playoffs). For one season of that period, he was in front of a rookie quarterback learning how to manage an NFL pass rush.

How many sacks did Okung allow? Five. Fun fact: That number over a nearly three-year period is lower than the total times Wilson went down in Week 12.

The one sack Okung allowed to Smith in 2013 was mostly a product of the coverage downfield after Wilson couldn’t pull the trigger, even with nearly four seconds to scan for an open target. But Smith’s immense strength and arsenal of pass-rushing maneuvers were still on full display.

During the NFC Championship Game, Seattle had possession just past midfield and lined up with a bunch set (two pass-catchers tight to the line on both sides). Wilson was in shotgun, with running back Marshawn Lynch to his right.

At the snap, everything was going according to plan for Okung, as it often does. His kick-slide took him out far enough that he could wait on Smith, and he maintained a wide, solid base:

Credit: NFL Game Rewind

But Smith can turn one minor stumble into a sack and wasted play. That’s all it takes—just a single, fleeting mistake.

On this play, his opening came from Okung’s hand placement. The tackle still had that strong base, but when he engaged, his hands were just a touch too far apart when they landed on Smith.

That led to Okung losing his leverage for only a brief second. It was plenty for Smith, who was able to plant his back foot and thrust, breaking through Okung’s arms while sending the tackle stumbling backward:

Credit: NFL Game Rewind

After that, Okung’s base was gone. He tried to anchor again with his right foot, but he was leaning. Tossing him aside before finishing the job was too easy:

Credit: NFL Game Rewind

The offensive lines for both the Seahawks and 49ers have been feeble this season. The Arizona Cardinals sacked Wilson seven times in Week 12, and Colin Kaepernick is the league’s most sacked quarterback (34).

That’s why even with the mobility of each quarterback and the bruising power in each backfield, a game that could put the loser’s playoff hopes on life support will be decided by which offensive line breaks first.

Okung hasn’t done much breaking against Smith...yet?