Poor, Poor, Poor, tackling

Yes our D played bad tonight and our O stalled on drives where we should have finished, but I feel that our tackling was one of the biggest problems. I saw guys just using arms, giving up on the play, and over all just poor tackling. What do you think is key to fixing this?

 

From what I have seen over the year, poor tackling often is just a result of a defender who just isn't very good.

 

I think a lot of it was youth inexperience and over aggression as well

 

I love the 3-4 but damn I would have put in Big Mac and Little Mac, kept Moats, Timmons and Shazier out there and rushed four and dropped everyone else. No way in heck should three rookies be holding the center of that line that well against seasoned vets and they looked all pro

 

I agree, Dan should've seen more snaps

 

Some of this poor tackling I believe comes from starters not playing enough in pre season and also the limited practice times in pre season set up by the players union.

 

I mentioned this in the thread where everyone was freaking out about preseason. THIS was an issue during preseason and, not surprisingly, is still an issue. You can have a vanilla, watered down scheme during the preseason but you can either tackle or you cant. We cant.

 

You get what you purchase. If you want good tackling, draft good and willing tacklers.

 

This is without a doubt the most troubling thing I saw in last night's game... and, it has been a recurring trend over that last couple of years. The tackling was off the chart bad. I can't tell you how many times I yelled, "Tackle some-damn-body". I think the defense would improve considerably if they actually focused on tackling... too many broken tackles... too many yards after first contact.

 

I didn't like seeing the Pats guys running around the second level in Shazier and Timmon's territory and not getting decleated.

Patriots forced Blake to come up and stick guys and he was NOT doing a good job of it.

 

As mentioned, tackling has been an issue for a while now. I wonder if part of this has to do with a fear of being fined and/or suspended? Maybe guys go for the arm tackles instead of the body shots because they don't want to lose a paycheck? If this is indeed the case, maybe the front office needs to tell their players that they will pay fines for what they feel are clean hits, the hell with what the NFL thinks?
As for practicing, is that even allowed in the current CBA? It's hard to fix stuff when you can't even put the pads on.

 

I saw ALOT of "shoulder" tackles. No way Gronk is going down with a shoulder nudge.

 

I don't think this issue is exclusive to us. As others have mentioned, the CBA limits a lot of what can be worked on in camp and the farm system (NCAA) also isn't producing the kind of players that we are used to seeing in the NFL. As the game becomes more pass happy and more emphasis is placed on player safety, tackling will suffer.

Tune in to any NFL game this weekend and you'll see horrendous tackling. We just need to swarm to the ball so when the first guy misses, guy 2 and 3 will make the "tackle". I saw too much standing around last night.

 

I want to know why Shazier was not matched up versus Gronkowski.

Why use a first on him as a run defender or to play zone?

Shazier is one of the best options in the entire NFL to cover Gronk and he wasn't used.

Garvin was though... SMH.

 

Thank the union and CBA for this type of football,
But as one poster already said, draft willing tacklers.

 

We have tackled poorly the pst 3-4 years now,, so i guess for some reason or another , the coaches do not stress the fundamentals of football/ tackleing

 

Good Lord, these guys are supposed to be PROFESSIONAL football players. Proper tackling technique is taught in junior high school. To insinuate that the Steelers are suddenly "forgetting" how to tackle is ludicrous. Proper technique requires DISCIPLINE. They are lazy. That is a COACHING problem that has become a trademark of the Tomlin era.

 

I've always wondered why so many other users don't see this. Since Tomlin took over this team, there has been certain issues that have been persistently costing us games. It can all be summed in two words "dumb mistakes." Mistakes happen, but my god, we make some dumb mistakes, and it's not always on the field. Clock management has cost us games in the past. Playcalling has hurt us (including that idiotic trick play when we were driving down the field). Our guys are simply undsciplined and that comes from the coaches. We tackle poorly and have since Tomlin came to town. Under Cowher we were known as the best tacking team in the league, and that was every single year. Now were trying to shoulder check the best TE in the league. It's ridiculous. If tomlin isn't to blame for these lapses all the time, who the hell is?

 

Agree. Pursuit to the football! Even if the first guy misses or is shrugged off, a teammate can complete the tackle. That is one way to aid poor tackling until techniques can be coached up. We used to have "pursuit" drills in college and even chalkboard sessions on the way the defenders should flow to the ball.

Awareness and hustle can cure many a woe.

It also encourages guys to strip the ball from the runner and be in the area when they fumble.

Reviewing the game tape, we would get graded poorly if all 11 defenders were not in the frame when the play ended. I'm sure Shade Tree isn't going to be in the frame for the long catches, lets be reasonable, but it looked like this area could be greatly improved.

A lot of Steelers were just getting flat out juked with no other teammates around them.

 

I want to but I better not


I woke up this morning and I grabbed myself a beer

 

I agree,, But SSSSHHHH some on get here get mad if you say something negative abt tomlin

 

This was so puzzling.

 

Good lord, you are so right, afraid to say anything negative abt Tomlin, along with some players like JJ, even when they stink up the joint. It's okay to tell it like it is, we all have one thing in common,
"we love our steelers".