mac03

What ever happened to the art of tackling?

I remember playing pee-wee football the first thing you learned on defense was to wrap-up and tackle.

Seems like every game I watch lately, all the defense does is try to lay big hits on the ball carrier and they never wrap up. If you watch a college or pro game you'll notice that over the past few years, the best running backs are guys who can 'bounce' off of the defenders. The defenders try those big hits and these littler running backs just bounce off the hit and keep going.

Has anyone else noticed other trends liek this lately?

Rdr4evr

You are correct, I don't know if it is necessarily happening more than before, but going for the big hits could be costly. We lost our first game against the Chiefs because our safety went for the big hit rather than wrapping up the ball carrier, not only did he bounce off, he scored the game winning TD. It is vital for a defensive player to wrap around the ball carrier, going for the hit alone is too risky.

Rudel73

dude its harder than it looks! Seriously man i played football all my highschool career and you always TRY to wrap up but sometimes shit happens and you cant! You try tackling a 230 pound monster running at you full speed by wrapping him up you'll get run over

Bodyhammer86

Well, you have to hit him FIRST, and then wrap the guy up to make sure he goes down.

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mac03

I understand that. I'm referring more to the guys who drop their shoulder and try to cream a guy with absolutley no intention of wrapping a guy up.

Cross-Over

I haven't really noticed it that much this season, and only after the Vikings/Packers game last Friday did I really here about it from the plethora of football analysts on ESPN. Yes, a few tackles were missed, but some good blocking and quick moves contributed to that as well.

What I have noticed more of, is corners and safeties getting beat when they try to tackle low. I vividly remember Larry Centers jumping over Darren Woodson on MNF many years back, it was amazing. Deion took him out low earlier in the game I believe. I saw similar, but not as spectacular, plays two or three times just this past weekend. I am not saying it is a bad play by the defender, I just think it is a great move by the ball carrier.

paddyjoe

How is a hard, textbook tackle going to make ESPN's top ten plays?

Too many showboats.