Jared Allen Revisits 22nd Sack on 10-Year…

Was there a concerted effort, then, to get Allen to the quarterback?

Williams will tell you there was.

“It started out business as usual, but after he got those first couple, I think we kind of started stacking the box and basically funneling the guys to try to get him 1-on-1 so he had a chance to get it,” Williams said. “There were a few times I know we started all-out pressuring him, just to try to give him a shot to get the sack record.”

Allen also is quick to give credit to his teammates and then-Defensive Coordinator Fred Pagac.

“I’m sure ‘Pug’ would say he was just doing it to win and create matchups, but Kevin’s absolutely right,” Allen said. “They were chipping up through the middle, they were chipping up out to the edge, so I got that half sack early. And I got another one, and I think when I got to around 20, ‘Pug’ kind of was like, ‘Well, all right, let’s just keep this thing going.’

“It became a team effort. Everybody was excited, everybody was thrilled,” Allen continued. “So everybody’s just playing with their hair pinned back, and ‘Pug’ was calling a great game.”

McCown also can attest to the Vikings relentlessness in coming after him.

“They schemed it well and created 1-on-1s for Jared. Which, obviously, he won a lot of,” McCown quipped. “I can remember in that game, Chad Greenway walking up in the A-gap going, ‘Dude,’ because, you know, both teams are kind of out of it, and we were sitting there laughing and he’s like, ‘When we get this record, we’ll stop blitzing, but we’re coming. We’re gonna get our guy the record.’

“You’re sitting there like, ‘Man, what are we gonna do here?’ It was a fun cat-and-mouse game,” McCown said.