05-08-2020, 10:31 PM
(05-08-2020, 05:28 PM)fredtoast Wrote: All stats from Footballoutsiders.
Last year the Bengals defense was "only" 20th in broken tackle percentage. I say "only" because it seemed much worse. The reason for that is the Bengals defense was on the field for so many plays. They were 4th in total broken tackles, but the percentage was low because of the high number of plays.
Nick Vigil led all LBs with 23 broken tackles. But when you look at broken tackles as a percentage of total tackles there wer actually several worse then him.
I doubt anyone is surprised by Vigil being #1 among all LBs, but it was a bit of a surprise that our safeties finished #1 (Bates 23) and #2 (Williams 22) in broken tackles. Again when you look at it as a percentage of total tackles there are several that are worse.
We HAVE to get better at tackling. The 2019 numbers are actually slightly better than 2018 (25th in %), but still completely unacceptable.
A lot has been made of the tackling abilities of the DBs we signed. It looks like there may be something to this. Look at the broken tackle percentages for the new guys and the players they replaced (lower percentage better)
Trae Waynes…….12.9%
Kirkpatrick...…...19.4%
Alexander...……… 3.7%
Dennard...……….11.1%
Bell...……………...16.7%
Bates...…………...26.7%
Williams...………..23.2%
Unfortunately the Free agent LB we signed is pretty much the same as Vigil in broken tackle %, but hopefully we won't see much of him on the filed with all the LBs we drafted
Bynes………………..26.9%
Vigil...………………..28.8%
Hope no one is planning on Bynes making the tackles against Lamar Jackson that Vigil whiffed.
Good post.
Agree that improving the run defense, and tackling was certainly a priority. Reader, and all the DBs we added are all better run stoppers/tacklers than the guys they are replacing.
Going to disagree on Bynes. IDK why, but a lot of folk seem to think/hope he won't play much. He started half the year for a very good Ravens D last year. And graded out VERY well. He is gonna start at MIKE. Period. Not that PFF should be treated as gospel or anything, but take a gander:
2019 PFF Grades:
DJ Reader 86.7 (Billings 69.3)
Josh Bynes 76.6 (Vigil 54.4)
Alexander 65.7 (Dennard 72.2)
Waynes 65.1 (Kirkpatrick 61.7)
Bell 62.8 (S. Williams 54.4)
--------------
Dunlap 89.7
Atkins 76.2
Hubbard 67.1
Bates 59.7
Jackson 53.6
Pratt 51.2 (P. Brown 45.9)
-------------
Tupou 73.8
Lawson 55.5
Phillips 81.6
S. Williams 54.4
B. Wilson 47.5
As you can see, Bynes graded out as our 3rd best defender (amongst the starters), behind only Dunlap & Reader. Phillips also graded higher, but did not play much.
I did not search for grades on guys that played smaller roles (P. Brown, Glasgow, etc).
