Football Outsiders: Tackle Someone!/Break a Tackle Already

[Duckjake]

Everything we did last season sucked.

That was amazing wasn't it? It's like the entire franchise decided to take a year off.

But anyone who has followed the Cardinals knows that tackling has been an issue for several years. I even wrote back when Arizona signed McFadden that I hoped he'd help improve the poor tackling.

 

[kerouac9]

Its impossible to discuss anything with you because when people bring up evidence to contradict you which is every bit as valid as the stuff you come up with, you dismiss it with incredibly amazing and insightful responses like;

"C'mon, now that doesn't count."

Everything we did last season sucked. Changes were in order. Its hard to have a lot of intensity tackling on defense when you're getting killed every week. I'm not judging BD off just last season and I dont think anyone else is. There were glaring holes in his defense the year before and they were just amplified by the cumulative ineptitude of last season.

Davis's defense wasn't any better in the 09 playoffs when we gave up 90 points in two weeks, and oh by the way that's when we had the LEGENDARY players like DRC, Rolle and Dansby, not to mention Okefor, Berry, Hayes. Lot of different faces on that defensive group, but still terrible under BDavis.

Lets re visit this after the season and if those numbers are still that bad, then we can blame the personell and Davis will be cleared of all charges. Until then you are speculating every bit as much as anyone else.

It doesn't, and I explained why. Mike Nolan was running that defense. Should we credit the success of the New York Jets defense to DC Mike Pettine, or to Rex Ryan? Should we credit the Bears' defense to Rod Marinelli, or to Lovie Smith?

I have no problem saying that Davis was a problem with the defense last season, but he wasn't the problem. People are acting like the biggest problem with the D last year wasn't that Joey Porter couldn't defeat single-man blocks but that Bill Davis was calling the signals from the sideline. As you say, we shall see if that's true, but the evidence seems to point to the fact that it's not.

 

[SuperSpck]

K9's got valid points and we shouldn't be shocked if the defense struggles again.
That said, I can see Davis being replaced as a refreshing change for the defensive players.
They weren't responding to him, regardless of how well/poorly the concepts were being executed. Even if Horton's stuff turns out exactly the same (and the preseason stuff does look familiar) the fact that someone else is doing it could be the motivating factor in getting guys to actually do their job.
I've seen people hate others who knew what they were doing and made non-cooperation a point of pride and I've seen others follow dummies blindly and advance just because of charisma.

 

[Catfish]

Surprising to see Wilson that high, usually he's a sound tackler. Now with his biceps injury, it will make it 100x harder to wrap up, not a good sign of things to come...

I would dispute his tackling ability. He was a pure hitter. He didn't keep his head up. He whiffed regularly, and committed unsportsmanlike penalties on others because he didn't see where he was hitting, (too many head shots).
He was only a pro bowler because when he hit, it was usually spectacular, whether it was a good hit or not. He was never a wrap-up tackler, (although not many of his intended targets continued on). When the league cleaned up the head shot hits, he became a so so safety who couldn't cover. He is still a leader on the field, but I doubt he will ever be another pro-bowler.

 

[Duckjake]

I would dispute his tackling ability. He was a pure hitter. He didn't keep his head up. He whiffed regularly, and committed unsportsmanlike penalties on others because he didn't see where he was hitting, (too many head shots).
He was only a pro bowler because when he hit, it was usually spectacular, whether it was a good hit or not. He was never a wrap-up tackler, (although not many of his intended targets continued on). When the league cleaned up the head shot hits, he became a so so safety who couldn't cover. He is still a leader on the field, but I doubt he will ever be another pro-bowler.

Well as far as I'm concerned, and there are many here who disagree with me but I don't really care, Wilson got unsportsmanlike penalties because the Referees didn't see where he was hitting.

Just like Leonard Davis used to get holding calls because the Refs couldn't believe a guy could flat out dominate a defender like Davis did at times without holding they couldn't believe Wilson could blow up guys like he did without it being helmet to helmet. And of course Big and ADub played for the Cardinals so out come the flags.

 

[kerouac9]

Well as far as I'm concerned, and there are many here who disagree with me but I don't really care, Wilson got unsportsmanlike penalties because the Referees didn't see where he was hitting.

Just like Leonard Davis used to get holding calls because the Refs couldn't believe a guy could flat out dominate a defender like Davis did at times without holding they couldn't believe Wilson could blow up guys like he did without it being helmet to helmet. And of course Big and ADub played for the Cardinals so out come the flags.

I think this happened early in Antron's career, as well. He got a rep as a corner who liked to grab people, and the refs took a quick flag approach with him.