This is either great or scary...

It's both. It's great that they're first to the ballcarrier, but it's scary that it's often because nobody else is.

 

it also reflects how long the D has been on the field

 

You don't want a DB to have that many tackles.

It probably means the other team is moving the ball on you. And, the DB is left to make the tackle.

Usually a bad sign.

 

Not really. Troy Polamalu has a lot of tackles, does that make Pittsburg a bad defence? Ed Reed usually has a lot of tackles too.

It's bad if you cornerbacks have a too many tackles, but for a safety like Hope, it's not that bad, because you use them for runsupport as well.

 

Ummm...

Not exactly...

The Steelers primarily put Polamalu in the box on run downs so it's understandable that he makes a ton of tackles.

We don't frequently play Hope like that and with the latest spin on both Safeties being used the same (both are FS and SS) they theoretically they should have a similar # of tackles.

Since that is not the case...we can go back to the concept that Bulluck and Hope are making way more tackles than they should! It's especially bad for Hope because he's making a lot of those tackles in the secondary or after some RB gashed the defense up the middle for a 20 yard gain.

That is NOT a good sign!

If you play Madden you'll know you have an awesome defense when NONE of your players lead the league in tackles because the offense runs so many fewer plays.

The fact that we have 2 players leading means we're allowing way too many offensive plays to happen which also translates into the defense being less effective because they are playing so much and the offense being less effective because they have fewer opportunities.

This is in general cause 3 games is hardly a good statistical sample and our D was much better against the Dolphins (though we still have much room for improvement). Let's hope our D continues to improve!

Gut

 

You can argue whether it's wrong for Hope to get a lot of tackles in the scheme we're running because somebody else is supposed to get them, but my point was that his tackles don't come from chasing down runners/receivers from behind after huge gains, like some a number of Bullucks did the last couple of years. The reason Hope has many tackles, especially in the last game, is that he's flying all over the place and making tackles, that other should have already made. But it's still positive that he's there, from an individual standpoint.

 

Exactly Gut, this is scary, when the opposing team can run easily against you, the tackles that a guy gets in a game will mount up...

 

somebody has to take up Hill and Thompson's slack