On Thanksgiving Day, 1965, the Baltimore Colts and the Detroit Lions battled to a 24-24 tie. In the New York Times report of the day, it was noted that Unitas was sacked four times by the Lions defense; well, technically, it was reported that he was “trapped” four times. 
That wasn’t such a big deal: the Lions defense would go on to lead the NFL in sacks with 49 that season, and no defense recorded more sacks than Detroit from 1960 to 1965. But the Thanksgiving performance was notable because it marked the 76th consecutive game that the Detroit Lions sacked the opposing quarterback.
The streak would end the following week against division rival San Francisco. John Brodie was a difficult man to take down; in 1965, the 49ers offense had the lowest sack rate in the NFL. Earlier in the season season, Detroit registered just one sack on Brodie, and in the rematch, Brodie dropped back 35 times without being trapped for a loss.
The Detroit Lions defense of the early 1960s was stacked with front-seven talent like Roger Brown, Alex Karras, Wayne Walker and Joe Schmidt, while the defensive backfield had future three Hall of Famers (Yale Lary, Night Train Lane, and Dick LeBeau). From ’60 to ’65, only the Lombardi Packers allowed fewer points. The Lions fielded a legendary defense, one worthy of the honor of holding the consecutive games with a sack record.
The Pittsburgh Steelers have now recorded a sack in 69 straight games, which ties the NFL record… if you listen to the NFL or the Steelers. According to the NFL, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers hold the all-time record for consecutive games with a sack at 69; and yes, it’s true that Tampa Bay had 69 consecutive regular season games with a sack from ’99 to ’03. But the Lions hold the actual record for consecutive games with a sack at 76, and you can view that list of games here, beginning with the 4th game of the 1960 season through the 11th games of the 1965 season.
If you include the postseason, the ’76 to ’80 Cowboys also had a 76-game streak (it was 68 in the regular season). But most NFL records look at regular season games only, so I can understand why the Cowboys mark (while arguably more impressive) has been overlooked. And if you’re wondering, the Lions did not play in a postseason game from ’60 to ’65 (thanks, Vince), so that streak also topped out at 76 games including the playoffs.
On Sunday night, the Steelers face the Bills in a highly anticipated matchup of two of the top teams in the AFC. We are sure to hear from the broadcast team that Pittsburgh is on the verge of setting a new record by recording a sack in 70 straight games. That may be the case according to the NFL — which does a poor job both keeping records and promoting the history of the game — but it isn’t quite accurate, at least according to the records at Pro-Football-Reference.com.