Tackling

What ever happened to the art of tackling a player by wrapping your arms around the ball carrier. This is driving me nuts. When did they start teaching that is is OK to just try and throw a shoulder into who has the ball and hope they go down? How many times do players now just try and strip the ball only to watch the carrier break away for another 5-7 yards. I'll admit that I have never played at a high level football in my life and it's always been backyard neighborhood stuff as my experience but I swear my brother would have chewed me out big time if I ever didn't try and wrap up a player. Somewhere along the line in the past few decades tackling has gone from wrap both arms around a player and drive him to the ground to just hoping you can knock him down by any means possible. Missed tackles are piling up and it's costing teams yards and points. You can see it in High School, Colleges and now the Pro's. I just wonder why.

 

I've been wondering this too. Seems like nobody wraps up any more.

 

I just had a similar conversation with a friend of mine. We were wondering if just throwing your body at a player rather than wrapping him up during a tackle could be contributing to the increase in concusions? Not sure, I guess, but wrapping a guy and driving him to the ground probably is a little better than just blasting him full speed. Unless you are the quarterback, of course.

 

I would like to see a rules change to disallow this practice. It should be reviewable. And if the player's forward motion is stopped, prior to the ball being ripped out, the play should be considered over. It happened Thursday night to Michael Turner. He was stopped by a wall of 3-4 players, along came another one who took the ball away. Bogus.

 

I seldom watch college football anymore because I have too much to do on my Saturdays but this week I have been laid up ill and watch a whole lot of it. I just can't believe the terrible technique that is being accepted by coaches. Missed tackles are abundant and apparently there are no consequences. During the Georgia / Alabama game there was a pass to the left screen to the WR and the Bama CB had a clear shot at the WR for about a 1 yard loss and didn't square up but just lunged with his left shoulder into the thigh of the WR which bumped him ever so slightly just so he could spin off and gain 5 yards instead of a loss. All he had to do was wrap him up and he would have been down. It was down right pathetic that the basic tackling technique wasn't used. It was against all fundamentals that I have known all along about how to tackle a player. Troy (when on the field) is a prime example of this. He has gotten better in the past but boy was he example number 1 for a while.

 

They're taught that the first guy in wraps up, then everyone else tries to strip. The problem is that athletes want glory, they want the big plays, they want the stats, so you get players trying to strip and tackle at the same time, resulting in broken tackles.

 

i think your on to something shanner. glory. it's a tackle not winning the lottery. we have some good tacklers on the team. ike has always been a good one. another guy we should like is spence. not being a giant has helped him become a good tackler. just hitting a guy with a shoulder is not his stregnth at LB. shoulder first while heading down to wrap the legs is as effective as it used to be. head up, breakdown, wrap up. see what you are hitting. the biggest back in the league will go down if you hog tie his legs. let the pursuit lay the hammer. spence is good at this. allen seems like a good tackler.

it's like the TD dance. everyone does it now. no big deal, but it was alot more fun when only billy white shoes johnson was doing it. it's a copycat look at me , ESPN highlight, i'm a God sport now. there are a few purist left. heath miller. score and hand the ball to the ref and line up for the next play. it still makes sports center.

 

The problem is Fantasy Football and all the rules leaning towards the Offense and the passing game...Coaches don't really care about Form Tackling they just want the ball back...For example look at the Alabama vs. Georgia game yesterday the Bull Dogs have 9 or 10 NFL players on Defense and yet they could not stop a Power running game....More and more of these type guys are coming into the NFL...DL who are best at rushing the passer,LB'S who are pass rushers and better coverage guys,and DB'S who can cover and are not good tacklers...

Now is the time to be looking for great run blocking OL as the rest of the NFL spins off into the Twilight Zone we should be building a Power House running Team ...I know all the Fantasy guys will knock on that ,but that is the exact direction this Team needs to be going...No need to be like everyone else lets go our on way and develop a style that the other Teams talent can't match..

 

look no further than last night PWP. the guys blocking those 9 or 10 guys on the bulldawg defense. 4 of them will be pretty high picks too. there is a possibility to get guys that can pass block and also run block. we don't have a 102 million dollar franchise qb to hand the ball off. effective running and mixing it up seems to be the best way to go. keep the d off balance and adjust accordingly to it. thats what the consistantly good offenses do.

 

It has nothing to do with fantasy football. The internet has made everything more mainstream, including fantasy football, but fantasy sports have always been around. Coaches aren't instructing players to play a certain way due to fantasy football. Players are taught that the first guy in wraps up and secures the tackle. The rest of the players are taught to strip the ball once the tackle is secured by the first guy in. Every coach in the league and every analyst out there will confirm players are taught like that. Yes, coaches want the ball back because turnovers help win games. Look at Chicago this year, how many games has their defence won for them due to all the turnovers?

I would love a strong running game like Houston has, but we seem to have a systemic problem where we can't run the ball. Injuries to the Oline are no longer an excuse. All the good running games in the league face injuries at the Oline, and they don't miss a beat. Tampa Bay lost almost their entire Oline, and they still run the ball very well. Houston lost arguably their best linemen to free agency, yet they didn't miss a beat. we've had a subpar running game for a very long time now, and the excuses need to stop. It's on the coaches to fix it. The players can only be blamed for so long before the coaches need to take the blame. If the players are the problem, bring in new players or coach them up to play well like other running teams do.

 

I don't think the problem is fantasy football. I think the problem is ESPN Sport Center. Form tackles with arm wraps don't get you on Sport Center highlights, kill shots do.

 

I don't understand the hatred for fantasy football. It's been around as long as football itself, but the internet has made it far more mainstream. Fantasy football is a lot of fun, you should give it a try.

 

I participate in fantasy football, and I enjoy it. But I do have mixed feeling about the way it has changed the way I watch football. I find I get too focused on indivdual stats of 'my' players and those who I'm playing against. I'm less interested in the games themselves.

But again, I don't think FF explains poor tackling through out the league, I think it's more related to players getting on the highlights for ESPN, NFL network etc.

 

You don't have to draft Ravens players. I personally don't have any Ravens players, but I don't have a rule against it. It's pretty easy to cheer for a single player though while hoping the team loses.

When my players are going against the Steelers, I cheer for the Steelers ahead of my fantasy players obviously. Real football comes first, fantasy second.

 

I play a lot of fantasy football, but I also bet on many games during the week. For me, it makes football so much more exciting. Not only am I cheering for players on teams I don't care about, I'm also cheering for teams I could care less about because I bet on them that week. It also makes a game such as KC vs Carolina worth watching, as I have Cam Newton and Dwayne Bowe on my fantasy team, plus I bet on KC to win the game. Made it an exciting game to watch, when otherwise I would have rather poked my eyes out than watch either team.

 

I didn't mean it literally, but it has been around for a very long time, a lot longer than just the 90's. I'm in a league with a guy that's been doing it for over 30 years. It's very different now than 30 years ago according to him, but the idea is the same.