Clay Matthews says the Packers’ defense is ready for “this read-option, pistol, fake offense.”

Clay Matthews was asked about defending the read option on ESPN radio Tuesday morning. Here’s what Matthews said:

MATTHEWS: “One of the things that the referees have told us is that when these quarterbacks carry out the fakes, they lose their right as a quarterback, a pocket-passing quarterback, the protection of a quarterback. So with that, you do have to take your shots on the quarterback, and obviously they’re too important to their offense.

“If that means they pull them out of that type of offense and make them run a traditional, drop-back, pocket-style offense, I think that’s exactly what we’re going for. So you want to put hits as early and often on the quarterback and make them uncomfortable.

“I can tell you right now, we started from Day 1 in OTAs when we came back in the offseason working on this read-option, pistol, fake offense for lack of a better term. We’ve been working on it, especially after what we saw last year in the playoffs specifically and then opening up the season with two of these quarterbacks. We’re ready. We feel good about it.”

Do you believe Matthews when he says the Packers’ defense is ready to stop the read option?

In a way, Matthews is starting the psychological battle right now, trying to get Jim Harbaugh to protect Kaepernick and scrap the read option from the game plan before the game starts.

But who’s to say the Packers defense can stop Kaepernick even if they can contain him in the pocket? Kaepernick is a good pocket passer, and the Packers’ defense couldn’t stop Alex Smith last season.

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