Watching the Saints try to tackle Patriots’ receiver Julian Edelman (pictured) yesterday was painful to watch. The guy literally ran circles around any would be tacklers at will. After letting the game sink in for a day and having a chance to re-watch the tape, the main thing that stood out to me as a real concern was the horrific display of tackling I saw from the defending Super Bowl champs. Tackling at the second level was specifically the worst. The one guy I can really absolve of blame back there was Randall Gay, who played aggressively and tackled well, but otherwise it was a revolving door of missed hits and lackluster effort. It was like watching someone playing Madden and hitting the desperation dive tackle button repeatedly, which almost never works. Usama Young and Patrick Robinson in particular blew numerous opportunities to stop plays from becoming much bigger gains. Most of the special teams players making tackles are defensive backs as well, so the main area of worry for me is our defensive back’s ability to tackle. I’m not going to even address special teams coverage. I mentioned that was one area I was specifically going to pay attention to before the game, and I was left very unimpressed. If I’m the coaching staff I’m addressing the issues of coverage on kicks and tackling, like yesterday. I’m beating it into the player’s heads that if you don’t tackle properly and don’t play with aggression, you’ll get embarrassed by players like Julian Edelman. The Patriots turned pedestrian plays into game changers thanks to this lack of attention to detail. You’ll notice by comparison how hard the Saints had to work to get the ball in the end zone on that impression touchdown drive. Why? Because the Patriots tackled so well. They really made the Saints earn those 7 points. By comparison, the couple scores the Patriots got in the first half seemed like they came all too easily. The Saints would make a decent defensive play or two, only to turn around a allow a huge gain thanks to a few blown tackles.
It’s just one game after a training camp happening in brutal heat, so I’m sure the Saints are dealing with a combination of rust and camp legs. I’m willing to overlook this game, but I think the output was much worse and disappointing than a 27-24 score would lead you to believe. I fully expect a 100 times better display of tackling against the Houston Texans next weekend. And please, let’s all take from this that we’re still in preseason with ample enough time to correct these mistakes. Again, this game will have zero bearing on the results that will actually matter in the regular season. No one should be panicking. My confidence in the Saints has not changed at all based on this game, but I’d be naive to think some of those things I witnessed in the game should not be addressed or completely ignored by the players and coaches.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
