Gang Tackle

[AZ54]

I haven't been able to post much since the first game but one of the most obvious differences I noticed with our D against the Bengals was the lack of gang tackling. I give Lovie credit because we always had 11 guys running toward the ball and it paid off routinely. Too often against the Bengals we would have one or two players go for a tackle but additional support was either late getting there or never arrived. I'm glad Tucker and the players are addressing this in practice this week as we need this to stop AP this weekend.

 

http://espn.go.com/chicago/nfl/story/_/id/...rn-fundamentals

[madlithuanian]

I heard Peanut mention "population" tackle to take on AP.

 

 

 

I haven't been able to post much since the first game but one of the most obvious differences I noticed with our D against the Bengals was the lack of gang tackling. I give Lovie credit because we always had 11 guys running toward the ball and it paid off routinely. Too often against the Bengals we would have one or two players go for a tackle but additional support was either late getting there or never arrived. I'm glad Tucker and the players are addressing this in practice this week as we need this to stop AP this weekend.

 

http://espn.go.com/chicago/nfl/story/_/id/...rn-fundamentals

 

[Uncle Buck]

I heard Peanut mention "population" tackle to take on AP.

 

 

IT takes a village to tackle AP!

 

 

I like the term population tackle, sounds so Trestman like!

[madlithuanian]

It does!

 

 

 

I like the term population tackle, sounds so Trestman like!

 

[Stinger226]

I haven't been able to post much since the first game but one of the most obvious differences I noticed with our D against the Bengals was the lack of gang tackling. I give Lovie credit because we always had 11 guys running toward the ball and it paid off routinely. Too often against the Bengals we would have one or two players go for a tackle but additional support was either late getting there or never arrived. I'm glad Tucker and the players are addressing this in practice this week as we need this to stop AP this weekend.

 

http://espn.go.com/chicago/nfl/story/_/id/...rn-fundamentals

I think the problem is poor tackling. With the lack of hitting in the offseason, it just creates the situation where you have a couple of games before we get the art of tackling down. Peppers and Melton didnt show up and that is a result of lack of work in the preseason. It will come around.

[BearFan2000]

I was going to brign up that point, whether it's one guy, two guys or 3-6 guys. The Bengals game was a clinic on poor tackling... We often had guys in position or guys who should have been able to get into position to make the play but too often didn't look like the effort, or aggression was there to make the stop. Got sick of watching guys wiff, leave their feet to try and hit the ball carrier down, take poor angles, react slowly. This one area of not being sharp had a lot to do with Cincy sustaining long drives. That said rewatching the game the two 90+ drives both included a 40-45 yard big pass play to Green. Not that they weren't moving the ball well, but take the big plays away and perhaps some of their long drives end in FG's or Punts instead of TDs.

 

We weren't the only team to look sloppy in this area. I have to think at least partly it has to do with CBA rules limiting contact in mini camps, training camps, etc. And many of your first string D guys play sparingly in preseason, and some don't even play in preseason saying "I/He doesn't need to play he's ready for the season. When it comes to tackling I see a lot of what looks like practice out there where you run the play full speed but then when the tackle would be made you let up. That's why it takes a couple games or so till tackling tightens up. It also could be just a bad game buy the D which we've had games from this D in the past where we couldn't seem to tackle, or get off the field on 3rd down.

 

The filp side of this is that we've had a lot of these dumb CBA rules in the past as well and I've seen the Bears jump out the gate being stout on D and tackling hard and in numbers. So I don't feel the CBA stuff fully excuses these guys from poor tackling. Is it because we have an offensive minded head coach, and fixing the offense has been a point of emphasis throughout camp/preseason. Lovies staff was definitely defense first mentality. All in all we'll have a better idea of this team as the season progresses, and we have a larger sample size than 1 game. I'm not ready to panic on the D yet. I expect Trestman to address it as it sounds like he has in practice.