The lost art of tackling

In a 2003 issue of ESPN The Magazine, David Fleming wrote a scathing indictment of the Lost Art of Tackling. He recalled how Tennessee Titan fans gasped in awe and disbelieve at old film footage of newly-elected Hall of Famer Elvin Bethea—a defensive end for the then Houston Oilers—and  were uncomprehending of  the “precision and explosive power of his tackles and the way he terrorized the likes of Dan Fouts and Terry Bradshaw." They amazed at his “Perfectly calibrated angles to the target. Feet like pistons. Back flat. Shoulders square and smashed right into the gut. Ball carriers wrapped up in a powder blue death grip then driven hard and planted into the turf like fence posts. Total destruction. Complete annihilation. On every play.”

Fleming opined that “the entire NFL should be red-faced with shame for the epidemic of poor tackling that has managed to infect the game. You want a reason for the offensive explosion the last two seasons? All this tickling that passes for tackling has to be high on the list.” He likened today’s “tackling” to that old football game with the vibrating metal field, where the only “tackling” occurred when you bunched all the defensive “players” in one mass. Most teams have “pretty much given up altogether and started camouflaging their poor tackling by playing zone defense almost exclusively…The idea being, with more guys spread out across the field the odds are someone will -- even if it's by accident while wandering around -- bump into the guy with the ball, get in his way or somehow trip him and cause him to fall down or simply impede his forward progress.”

With that in mind, I’ve come to the suspicion (but not conclusion) that Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll and offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell know something that most local commentators don’t seem to know: That Lost Art of Tackling. Most teams rely on their passing games to succeed, with the running game just a change of pace. Defenders tend to concentrate more on hitting a receiver at more or less the same time the ball reaches them, or to dislodge the ball after the receiver catches it (did you see Deion Sanders actually tackle anyone—ever?).  

However, if a team develops a good running game—say with a bulldozer like Marshawn Lynch—defenders who can’t “wrap-up” might as well be sitting in the stands watching. Even a condensed quarterback like Russell Wilson—who gets swallowed-up if he stands in the pocket for longer than one second—embarrasses opponents who can’t get their arms around him when leaves the pocket; they don’t know if he is going to run or pass—and by the time they’ve figured out what he is going to do, he’s already 10 yards downfield. Sometimes I think defenders act like they are afraid of being penalized if they lay a finger on Wilson. 

Last week, I mentioned how one Arizona Republic sportswriter thought that the Cardinals gave-up even the pretense of tackling in the second half of the Seahawks’ 58-0 blow-out win. This week, the Buffalo Bills gave hometown fans a primer on what happens when a team decides to quit tackling from the jump, because defenders might get an owie; the result was a 50-17 thrashing. For both games, the Seahawks piled-up 554 yards rushing on 74 attempts—7.5 yards per carry. The Seahawks only passed the ball the past two games just to keep the quarterback’s arm from atrophying. 

I admit I’m not a Seahawks’ fan, and I still think Wilson is less the “leader” on this team than the gear shift. I hope that the Packers—who clinched the NFC North title by beating the Bears—meet the Seahawks in the playoffs and mete-out the simple justice that is due them. However, I will grant the Seahawks their due: For at least two weeks, they provided the highlight reel of just what Fleming was talking about a decade ago. 

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You know who else had a good week? The Washington Redskin’s quarterback. No, it wasn’t Robert Griffin the Third; it was the other rookie quarterback on that team, Kirk Cousins. While RG3 was out nursing the same knee that suffered an ACL tear during his college days, Cousins was 26 of 37 for a team season high of 329 yards and two TD passes in a 38-21 win over Cleveland. The AP story on the game merely insinuated that Cousins was filling-in for the team’s “star player” and had put-up respectable numbers. My feeling is that Cousins is another potential franchise talent being wasted on a team with a “man-crush” on a player who will likely be injury-prone throughout his career. There are always “exceptions” to the rule, although in this case we still haven’t seen one.