It's been quite the week for San Francisco 49ers rookie defensive end Nick Bosa. The rookie is coming off of arguably the best performance of his young NFL career in the 49ers, 31-3, victory over the Cleveland Browns. His "Monday Night Football" performance did not go unrecognized as the rookie was named as the NFC Defensive Player of the Week.
Bosa recorded two sacks, three quarterback hits, four quarterback hurries, four total tackles and his first-career forced fumble and fumble recovery on Monday night. According to ESPN Stats & Info, Bosa is the only 49ers player to register 2.0 sacks, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery in a single game in the last 25 years.
"I was doing the same thing that I have been doing, just rushing my butt off," Bosa said following Monday's win. "The fact that all the things came together for me to get a couple of sacks. A sack is a number of things; it is not just somebody winning a rush. My job is to win the rush and do my job. The DBs job is to cover and make him hold it a couple extra seconds and the rest of the guys stay in their rush lanes to keep him contained in the pocket. So there is a lot that goes into those sacks.
"I got a lot of one-on-one opportunities tonight and I knew that I could win them. Just having Dee Ford burning off the edge and the inside guys Arik Armstead, (DeForest Buckner) Buck, just closing it. (Cleveland Browns quarterback) Baker (Mayfield) couldn't see anything downfield. Some of my sacks should go to them."
According to Pro Football Focus, the rookie leads all edge defenders in pass rush productivity rating (16.1), quarterback pressure rate (28.0 percent) and pass rush win rating (26.9 percent) through five weeks.
Bosa also earned a Pepsi NFL Rookie of the Week nomination following his Week 5 outing. He'll have an opportunity at a repeat performance in Week 6 as the 49ers head to their first divisional matchup of the season against the Los Angeles Rams.
