Should he be worried?
Last night in the WFLA-TV Channel 8 broadcast of the Backup Bowl between the Buffalo Bills and the Bucs, analyst Ronde Barber grew tired of all the sloppy tackling by Bucs defensive backs.
It seems the most physical Bucs defensive backs got in the game was trying to land a punch on a Buffalo tight end.
Even Joe got tired of the display as much as Barber. Late in the game, Barber had enough and warned that the sloppy tackling means Bucs backup defensive backs ought to have a couple of sleepless nights before the team cuts its roster down to 53 on Tuesday.
> “It is just more missed tackles by this Bucs secondary,” Barber moaned. “Todd Bowles is very, very adamant that this team needs to be a better tackling football team.
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> “So all these guys that are on the field right now, if they’re not able to show \[an ability to tackle\] they’re not going to be an option for this defense. So keep an eye on any of these guys … the ones that don’t make … tackles are the ones that we probably won’t be talking about.”
Pretty strong words from Barber. And Joe doesn’t blame him one bit. Off the top of Joe’s head, he cannot recall Barber committing any glaring missed tackles.
By Barber’s words, a guy who better be worried is Kaevon Merriweather. He had an atrocious ole’ of a missed tackle in the first half. Just put his head down and tried to hit a Buffalo ballcarrier with a shoulder, not even attempting to wrap up, holding his arms down.
The ballcarrier blew past Merriweather.
If a high school kid tried that, he’d be benched. With that miserable missed tackle, Merriweather, by his own actions, gave up 10 yards on the play. Terrible.
It baffles Joe beyond words how guys simply don’t even attempt to wrap up. Hell, Joe learned how to do that in high school hitting tackling dummies. What the hell are owners paying defensive assistants six figures (or more) for?