Todd Bowles Irked By Subpar Tackling
September 16th, 2021
Bucs DC Todd Bowles.
Joe just does not understand why NFL teams cannot tackle well. It blows Joe’s mind.
Oh, part of it is the total boner defensive coaches have for turnovers. Joe confident all Bucs fans saw first hand with lousy Lovie Smith that if a defender is too focused on punching the ball out rather than tackling, that means a defense is in for a long, long day.
Tackling for Joe is one of the most basic football fundamentals. Yet it seems to be damn near a dinosaur technique.
Bucs defensive coordinator Todd Bowles spoke today at One Buc Palace and per Scott Smith of Buccaneers.com, Bowles mentioned a hidden sloppiness of the Bucs’ defense in the win over the Cowboys was tackling, or not tackling well enough.
DC Todd Bowles says the Bucs opener was “like a preseason game” in terms of the team’s tackling. Bowles says the Bucs need to improve their angles and their open-field tackling.
— Scott Smith (@ScottSBucs) September 16, 2021
Well, Joe doesn’t think that Lavonte David or Devin White is the culprit here. Those guys tackle.
Joe can’t remember this study was done, but a reason dudes don’t wrap up when tackling is that opens players up for shoulder injuries, so they are inclined not to wrap up. It was the first time Joe had ever read that and Joe has no idea if that has any merit or not.
But dang, can’t teams practice tackling fundamentals with dummies in no-hit practices? It’s a league-wide issue that just puzzles the hell out of Joe.
September 16th, 2021 at 1:25 pm
Simple, they don’t want to get hurt.
September 16th, 2021 at 1:26 pm
Boner Joe? That’s Hysterical!
September 16th, 2021 at 1:32 pm
Like preseason or not, you get better by actually playing.
GO BUCS!!!!
September 16th, 2021 at 1:48 pm
Pete’s popping pills, wheelies & boners after the Secondary decides to play this week.
September 16th, 2021 at 1:49 pm
Joe, it’s simpler than you think. The reason why they don’t tackle well in games is because they don’t tackle in practice. How many practices are they in full pads and allowed to truly “tackle” someone in practice?
Games reveal what your practices are like.
September 16th, 2021 at 1:49 pm
The 2nd to last paragraph is very interesting here
I thought they were taught, and do the subsequent drills in practice, to alligator roll the tackle (I know Seattle is known for this technique)….which you’d have to wrap up to do. And whatever happened to just put your face mask on the ball, wrap up and drive your legs?! So much punching at the ball and holding up the ball carriers these days….
When you watch the behind the scenes or mic’d up videos of the games, you can hear defenders talking to each other about one guy just holding them up so the other(s) can come to try to rip the ball out. It’s a fine balance of just getting the guy down to the ground on the spot or trying to create a turnover and get the ball back these days.
I think it’s changed more in the direction of getting the ball back and stealing possessions. Or at least it’s taken more precedent. As the NFL continues to make it easier and EASIER for the Offenses to move the ball and score at will, while adversely making it more difficult for the defenses to stop the opposing offenses, I think this trend continues. It is what it is. It’s the league we are in today.
Like Brady said the other day, with the rules being so skewed now towards the offense’s benefits and the limiting of what defenses and defenders can do today, it’s making the quality of Football diminish and fundamentals and techniques are following taking a hit.
September 16th, 2021 at 2:00 pm
Yeah.. saw some of that in the Packer game as well. Guys rolling or shouldering into RB’s, trying to knock them off their feet, rather than actually wrapping up. Seems to be pretty widespread around the league.
September 16th, 2021 at 2:00 pm
I saw White, David, and Winfield make impressive open field tackles.
September 16th, 2021 at 2:13 pm
Devin White absolutely mauled Zeke on an open field tackle…..behind the LOS.
September 16th, 2021 at 2:16 pm
Hopefully it’s nothing more than shaking off the rust. The 1st team guys didn’t get much PT during the preseason.
September 16th, 2021 at 2:22 pm
For all his faults Andrew adams at least had a clutch open field tackle on Zeke.
September 16th, 2021 at 2:24 pm
Unrelated, but Brady said on the latest “Tommy and Gronky” episode on the Bucs site that he thinks he can play until 50. Makes you wonder how many more he will play.
September 16th, 2021 at 2:28 pm
79:
Joe understands that quote from Brady playing until he is 50 is getting a lot of play but isn’t that video series supposed to be satire? So Joe cannot take anything said in that video remotely seriously.
September 16th, 2021 at 2:56 pm
I agree with Bowles.
September 16th, 2021 at 3:22 pm
Joe ! Have you been getting Medicated by Pete ???
Rhonde Barber spoke about that in the pre-season and you posted that on your site !!!!
Too many benzo’s and bromosas Joe. !!!!
September 16th, 2021 at 3:23 pm
It’s 2 things. Not practicing tackling in the off season / preseason, and there being so many rules which prevent leading with the head, so guys don’t get down to make a form tackle anymore, they just slam in shoulder first and hope the contact results in a tackle.
September 16th, 2021 at 3:51 pm
I suspect tackling a dummy is easier–and live tackling in practice must be practically a thing of the past with injury concerns and NFLPA negotiated limits–so in a sense the first four games are kind of a preseason for high level violence.
September 16th, 2021 at 4:07 pm
@Mike, yep! Suh just pushes them down. Every time I see a flag thrown due to a good hit it makes me glad I don’t play. It must be frustrating as heck for the defense.
September 16th, 2021 at 5:19 pm
It’s hard to be good at something if you are not given adequate time to practice it. Also, the rules regarding hitting have been bastardized to the same extent as the catch rule. It’s all subjective and differs from game to game and officiating crew to officiating crew. Behind the scenes, the folks that make the decisions on these things probably can’t come up with a consensus, so we are left with the mess that we have now.
Players, especially those making top five money for their position are more investments now for owners than anything else. The players rightfully should look out for themselves and the owners don’t want to flush money down the drain when one of their big money players gets hurt. I believe this and the league wanting to minimize lawsuits due to CTE have led to the sissified rules that we have today. Doing away with any guaranteed money for player contracts would go a long way towards fixing this bs. That said, the owners are to blame for guaranteed contracts to begin with and if I were a player I would want things to stay as is. Unfortunately, we the fans are the ones that pay the price with a watered down product, non football related issues that have no business being on a football broadcast, and increasingly asinine rules that slow the game down considerably. Still easily the best sport in the world but it seems like they are trying their best to f it up.
September 16th, 2021 at 11:17 pm
So what I see here are defenders being too aggressive. They are running full speed and too fast to correct thier angle on the ball carrier. If the the ball carrier slows down for a step or two. The defender ends up with a bad angle and he’s too committed to make a correction. That’s how you get the ineffective one arm Ole! tackle on the ball carrier.
These guys need get to the ball carrier fast. And then slow down a step and make the ball carrier commit first. You see it all the time. Ball carrier slows down he’s about to make a cut the defender comes flying in. And Ole!
September 17th, 2021 at 10:00 am
I can remember at least twice since I’ve been following this site that you’ve covered Derrick Brooks saying specifically that the early games are where teams relearn how to tackle well and that it’s always sloppy the first few weeks. It’s a cycle that happens every year and it’s always the case, so how is this news or noteworthy for this year’s team?
September 17th, 2021 at 2:25 pm
Check with the Miami strippers.. formally the Fins.
The new technique is 2 guys hold guy up while the DB rats chew and claw at the ball. It won them the game last week.