February
Green Bay Packers: Poor Tackling Among CBs Hurt Defense in 2011
Receivers often gained yards after the catch against the Packers because of poor tackling.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to look back on the Green Bay Packers 2011 season and identify the obvious reasons for their defensive collapse.
Cullen Jenkins was sorely missed at right defensive end, little to no production was received from outside linebacker opposite Clay Matthews and Nick Collins’ season-ending neck injury handicapped the back end.
But one factor that gets overlooked is just how poor the tackling was for the Packers defense, especially in the secondary.
Sam Monson of Pro Football Focus effectively laid out just how bad it was for the Packers secondary in 2011.
According to the site, which reviews and grades every single play for every single player, the Packers trio of cornerbacks—Charles Woodson, Tramon Williams and Sam Shields—was the worst tackling cornerback trio in the NFL.
And believe it not, the numbers weren’t even close.
Woodson missed 15 tackles on 87 attempts, Williams missed 16 on 80 attempts and Shields missed 10 on 40 attempts. Altogether, the three missed 41 tackles in 2011—a number that ranks them significantly above any other cornerback trio in the NFL.
The Philadelphia Eagles were the first team that came to mind in comparison, but their trio of Nnamdi Asomugha, Asante Samuel and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie only missed 27 tackles last season.
All three of the Packers cornerbacks ranked in the bottom 20 of tackling efficiency, too.
