TAMPA — The trio was the last to leave the practice field Wednesday. Tampa Bay Buccaneers safeties Jermaine Phillips, Will Allen and Kalvin Pearson stayed behind and worked on rudimentary tackling techniques.
Taking proper angles.
Pad level.
Head position.
If this sounds like Pop Warner stuff, go back and review the tape of Sunday’s 24-21 loss at New Orleans. Saints tailback Deuce McAllister looked like he was trampling and out-maneuvering 10-year-olds at times.
Four missed tackles on a 57-yard march to set up a touchdown. Three more whiffs on a 24-yard touchdown run.
“You’ve got to be a sure-tackling team to win in this league,” Coach Jon Gruden said. “I know we’re capable of it and I’m getting tired of saying it — and I know our players are tired of hearing about it.”
Phillips, the starting strong safety, heard plenty about it during the game. He was benched and replaced by Pearson in the second quarter. Allen, the starting free safety, looked lost in trying to tackle McAllister on his second-quarter scoring run. Pearson was sent back to the bench in the second half when Phillips was reinserted.
“Some of it’s just habits,” Phillips said. “After all these years, some things should be second nature. It’s frustrating.”
The Bucs (0-4) host Cincinnati (3-1) Sunday. Similar lapses will mean a huge day for tailback Rudi Johnson.
Defensively, a unit that ranked No. 1 in the league last year is No. 20 overall in 2006 and 30th against the run at 163.3 yards per game. A nice chunk of that figure is represented in yards after contact.
The ’06 defense returned 10 starters, all but free safety Dexter Jackson, an unrestricted free agent who signed with the Bengals. Though he’s not playing this week because of an ankle injury, he’s taken notice of the breakdowns on breakaway runs.
“Who is back deep?” Jackson asked Cincinnati reporters this week. “It’s like a spade is a spade. You can only hide the truth so long. It comes to light.”
Worth noting: No area of the Bucs’ defense has played a complete and sound game in ’06. But the safeties’ Keystone Kops play was glaring Sunday.
That’s why Tampa Bay secondary coach Greg Burns had his unit working overtime not just on the practice field but in the film room.
Burns has broadened the scope of his review to include some sloppy tackling displays from earlier in the season, too. He also included tape of instances his players executed correctly during those games.
“The biggest thing is to be realistic about it. You’ve got to see yourself so you know what you’re doing,” Burns said.
As Gruden pointed out after Sunday’s loss, the safety is the last line of defense between an offense and the goal line — “That’s why he has the name ‘safety,’ OK?” — so it’s often going to be a one-on-one matchup between the safety and a back in the open field. A defender can look really good or really bad.
“We’re just making mental errors,” Allen said. “It’s just the little things we have to fix.”
Some of those little things are fundamentals. That makes them big things when you’re talking about tackling players like McAllister or Johnson.
“It sounds simple,” Pearson said. “Some of it is just being anxious, maybe going too fast or looking too much for the big play. Sometimes, you just have to let the play happen. Most of the time, when you get away from doing things — when you lose it — it’s the fundamentals. You have to get back to them.”
