Tackling has become a big issue for Arizona Cardinals
Dec 29, 2014, 5:29 PM | Updated: 6:22 pm
“We tackled poorly again today,” Arizona Cardinals coach Bruce Arians said after Sunday’s 20-17 loss to the San Francisco 49ers. “All it takes is one guy in a gap to miss a tackle and it’s going to be a squirter.”
As the Cardinals head into their playoff matchup with the Carolina Panthers, they do so with a handful of concerns. While their sputtering offense is easily the most notable and talked about, the defense’s sudden inability to stop teams is arguably the most concerning.
A run defense that had gone 21 consecutive games without allowing a 100-yard rusher had surrendered 101 to Atlanta’s Steven Jackson and 113 to Seattle’s Marshawn Lynch over the last month before allowing San Francisco’s Frank Gore to gain 144 Sunday. It’s a problem for a group that had made its reputation on stopping the run.
“I would even take it a step further,” Cardinals GM Steve Keim told Doug and Wolf on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM Monday. “Not just the rush defense; just tackling in general, to me, was unacceptable.
“There’s an element to tackling, you know, whether it’s coming to balance the space, bending your knees, using the proper technique — that’s all one thing. But there’s an element to tackling, with an old school mentality that I have, that it’s mostly want-to. And I was extremely disappointed with our tackling in general yesterday.”
Keim added that 49ers QB Colin Kaepernick to got loose too many times for big runs, too.
“And made us look extremely bad in space, and that was disappointing,” he said.
The good news, besides the fact that Arizona still has games left to play, is that its defense has proven capable of tackling, of shutting teams down.
“We have to go back and watch the film to see,” linebacker Sam Acho said of the struggles. “We do have to do a better job tackling, staying in our
gaps, being defensively sound and I had a couple of mistakes out there.”
Over the last few weeks, Arians has talked about how the lack of padded practices makes it tougher to stay sharp when it comes to tackling, though every team deals with the same schedule so it really should not be a disadvantage for Arizona. And, if Keim is right that much of tackling comes down to desire, it would stand to reason there should be no shortage of motivation come playoff time.
Right?
“I think that’s the thing that you’ve got to be concerned about, do you just turn it on because it’s the playoffs,” Keim said. “I know Ron Wolfley’s mentality, my mentality, our mentality as an organization, we hope you see that week in and week out.
“And that’s something that the players have to look int he mirror and they have to answer to themselves. I think that they have to step up and be held accountable for it, and I know Todd Bowles will have those guys ready to go this week.”
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