Yesterday, Jared Allen set a Minnesota Vikings' team record by recording his 22nd sack of the season against Chicago's Josh McCown, and came up half a sack short of the single-season NFL record of 22.5* set by Michael Strahan in 2001.
In his "Snap Judgments" column, SI.com's Don Banks pretty much says what a lot of us are thinking this morning when it comes to that particular mark.
I don't know about you, but I am going to recognize Vikings defensive end Jared Allen as the NFL's all-time single-season sack king, with the 22 he racked up this year, capped by Sunday's big 3.5-sack showing in a loss to Chicago.
Allen may have come up a half-sack shy of Michael Strahan's 2001 record of 22.5 sacks in the eyes of the league, but we all remember how Strahan got the record-breaker that season. I wonder if Brett Favre had a flashback Sunday and fell down without a fight somewhere?
From all appearances, Jared Allen is the legitimate holder of the NFL's single-season sack record. Banks talked about the Favre flop in the quote above there, which is one we all remember. Before Strahan "set the record," the mark was held by New York Jets' defensive tackle Mark Gastineau, who had 22 sacks in 1984. After his retirement, Gastineau admitted that his body contained more illegal substances than Tony Montana's mansion during his time with the Jets, so the validity of that mark could be questioned as well.
However, it makes me wonder if Allen's total shouldn't be at 23 anyway. In the Vikings' second game against Green Bay this year, there was a play where Aaron Rodgers rolled out with Allen chasing him, dropped the ball without being touched, and fell on it for a loss with Allen touching him down. The NFL.com play-by-play page for the game shows the play as a sack, but Allen (who got a sack later on in the game as well) is only given credit for one sack in the box score from the same source.
I mean, after all, if Allen can be given credit for a sack for this play (which he was)
Then why not for the play from earlier this year I just mentioned, too?
Any way you slice it, it would appear that the single-season sack record should belong to Jared Allen. Or Gerald Allen. Either way. Maybe we can combine Jared Allen's sack total and Gerald Allen's sack total and chalk him up for an unbreakable 44 for the season.