I can’t believe it’s not butter. Running backs and receivers slipped out of the hands of Pittsburgh Steelers defenders a season-high 14 times versus the Seahawks on Sunday night (per Pro Football Focus). Nine of those missed tackles were committed by the secondary.
To address the issue, Steelers assistant defensive/secondary coach Teryl Austin says it starts with better preparing his guys for their assignments.
“Obviously, we’re not tackling our own guys, so it’s my job to put together some drills to help them get a little closer, to get in better position so that we can make those tackles,” Austin told Steelers media on Wednesday.
“We’ve got to do some things, and I’ll do some things drill-wise, to help them feel more comfortable in the open field, get their feet on people, so they can tackle and get them on the ground because we have to do better.”
Austin added that tackling is a crucial aspect of the defensive backs game.
“It’s never a function of toughness here because you can’t play DB in this league if you can’t tackle.”
According to Pro Football Focus, cornerbacks Joe Haden, Cam Sutton and rookie Tre Norwood each have a missed tackle percentage of 21. Safety Minkah Fitzpatrick has the most missed tackles with eight, but he also has the most total tackles (50), for missed tackles percentage of 14.
Pittsburgh’s defense has 51 missed tackles on the season, 21 attributed to the secondary.
“I don’t think we’re a poor tackling secondary,” said Austin. “I think we’re going to tackle. We’re going to tackle well overall. I’m sure we’ll get back to it. We’ve just got to make sure we emphasize it.”
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