Revenge of the Birds
Offense gets fans in the seats, but defenses win championships.
Arizona Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon is a defensive-minded. He brought over his strategies that worked well when he was the DC for the Philadelphia Eagles, who had just lost the Super Bowl. The Cardinals were in need of some defensive changes, and Arizona owner Michael J. Bidwill thought a keen defensive guy could make a difference.
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Gannon laid out a three-year plan, of which this season is the final year. At 3-11-0, those plans have highlighted quite a few problems and issues instead of playoff tickets going on sale.
The NFL loves the offensive side of the ball. They make no bones about it, either.
Can’t land on a quarterback, can’t touch a receiver after five yards, can’t hit a player in the face, after one Mississippi can’t hit a signalcaller, can’t block a man beneath the knee, allow offensive players to go into motion, no helmet-to-helmet contact, usually allows an offensive player to shield a defender on crossing routes (called a rub), and an offensive player can place his hand on a defender’s facemask as long as he doesn’t grab it.
And tackling? Geez. Players such as Ray Nitschke, Dick Butkus, Sam Huff, and Lawrence Taylor would be shadows of themselves in today’s NFL.
It used to be that players would kill each other in practice each week to prove to their own teammates who was the toughest SOB. And what’s this? Water breaks? Don Shula is spinning in his grave.
Gannon sees that the Cardinals’ defense is a bad-tackling team.
And rightfully so.
Remember when the goal on every tackle was to center the helmet on the other player’s jersey number, square up, and drive through the player? Or take him down by placing the helmet to the side of the ballcarrier’s knee, grab both legs just below the knees, and squeeze.
Now? Athletes today grab another player’s waist and try to sling them down. Or they jump on their shoulder pads and attempt to make their own body weight collapse the one with the ball. Out of Australia’s rugby culture came the “hip-drop” tackle, which has now been abolished. That used a player’s weight against him, but twisted knees and ankles in the process.
No team can have a good defense without sound tackling.
This past weekend against the Houston Texans, the Cardinals had plenty of missed tackles. It certainly made their opponent’s YAC stats much better and kept drives alive. Arizona has allowed 40 rushes with at least five yards after first contact. This ranks #3 in the league.
Currently, the Cardinals are ranked #11 in the NFL in missed tackles (85) in 2025. And they aren’t that far behind being in the Top-5. Safety Budda Baker leads the team in missed tackles with 11, followed by Mack Wilson (who is currently on IR) and Garrett Williams, both of whom have eight. However, Baker leads...
