GREEN BAY, Wis. -- The short view is that the Green Bay Packers have a tackling problem -- again.
Of the 28 teams that have played in Week 1 so far, only one missed more tackles than the Packers did in their 36-16 season-opening loss to the Seattle Seahawks.
According to ProFootballFocus.com, the Packers whiffed 18 times against the Seahawks. The New Orleans Saints, in their loss to the Atlanta Falcons, missed 23 (see accompanying chart).
In the long run, however, it might be too soon to say missed tackles will doom the Packers once again. They have corrected the problem in the past. In 2011, they missed 101 tackles. The next season, they cut that number to a manageable 68 – or about four per game. Last season, it spiked to 116 – or about seven per game – which was their highest total since Dom Capers took over as defensive coordinator in 2009. The Packers are not going to miss 18 tackles every week but if they did, they would finish the year with 288.
When coach Mike McCarthy stood at the podium the day after the game and offered his review of the Seahawks' loss, tackling was the second thing he mentioned.
"The one that jumps off the page at you is tackling," McCarthy said. "We had way too many missed tackles and the fundamentals of footwork and the things that go into that that's practiced every day didn't carry onto the field."
The worst offenders were inside linebacker Brad Jones and rookie safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix. Each missed three tackles. Clinton-Dix missed one that would have saved a touchdown in the second quarter. He dove at the legs of Seahawks receiver Ricardo Lockette at the Packers 14-yard line, and Lockette easily avoided him on the way to a 33-yard touchdown.
"Our footwork was poor," McCarthy said. "When you start leaving your feet to tackle people, it puts you in a compromising position. The biggest part of our tackling issue was the fundamentals of footwork and running through the near hip and the ability to come to balance in stressful situations. We just didn't do a very good job of it."
Maybe the coaches will give Clinton-Dix a pass because it was his first NFL game, but Jones deserves no such exoneration. As the only inside linebacker who played all 70 snaps, Jones, who missed only seven tackles in 13 games (including playoffs) last season, must be better or risk losing playing time to A.J. Hawk (66 snaps), Sam Barrington (zero snaps) or Jamari Lattimore (zero snaps).
"Brad didn't have his best game," McCarthy said.
How important was tackling to winning in Week 1? In 12 of the 14 games played so far, the team with fewer missed tackles was the victor. The only exceptions were the Buffalo Bills, who won despite 12 missed tackles to the Chicago Bears' 6, and the San Francisco 49ers, who won despite 13 missed tackles to the Dallas Cowboys’ 11.
The Packers' next opponent, the New York Jets, was one of the most sure-handed tackling teams of Week 1. They missed only three in their victory over the Oakland Raiders (10 missed tackles).
"You are what you are, and after one game, we've put out there our performance," McCarthy said. "And our next opponent will stress us in those areas that we did not perform very well in."