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There was one thing that seemed to plague the Arizona Cardinals late in the season -- poor tackling. They seemed to miss a lot of tackles.
So that made me think -- were they really as bad as it appeared?
According to Pro Football Focus, the Cardinals missed 122 tackles, which was once every 7.7 tackle attempts.
So how does that compare to other teams? They were 24th in tackling efficiency overall.
| Team | Tackling efficiency (attempts per missed tackle) |
| Chicago Bears | 10.0 |
| Cleveland Browns | 10.0 |
| San Francisco 49ers | 9.6 |
| Minnesota Vikings | 9.5 |
| Tennessee Titans | 9.0 |
| Philadelphia Eagles | 8.9 |
| Miami Dolphins | 8.8 |
| Buffalo Bills | 8.7 |
| Carolina Panthers | 8.7 |
| Houston Texans | 8.7 |
| San Diego Chargers | 8.7 |
| Cincinnati Bengals | 8.6 |
| Denver Broncos | 8.5 |
| Seattle Seahawks | 8.4 |
| Baltimore Ravens | 8.3 |
| Green Bay Packers | 8.3 |
| Indianapolis Colts | 8.2 |
| New England Patriots | 8.2 |
| NY Jets | 8.2 |
| Pittsburgh Steelers | 8.2 |
| Atlanta Falcons | 7.9 |
| Washington Redskins | 7.9 |
| Kansas City Chiefs | 7.8 |
| Arizona Cardinals | 7.7 |
| NY Giants | 7.7 |
| Dallas Cowboys | 7.6 |
| Jacksonville Jaguars | 7.6 |
| St. Louis Rams | 7.6 |
| Detroit Lions | 7.5 |
| Oakland Raiders | 7.3 |
| Tampa Bay Buccaneers | 7.1 |
| New Orleans Saints | 6.6 |
Of course, tackling efficiency doesn't mean good or bad defense. The Rams were considered to have one of the better defenses in the league, but they were worse than the Cardinals. Arizona had one of the league's top defensive units, at least in terms of points allowed, and was not good at tackling. The same can be said about the Chiefs.
The Bears were far from one of the best defensive units in the league. They were tied for first in tackling.
However, the eyes didn't lie. Arizona was not a good tackling team, and it was a big dropoff from 2013, when they missed a tackle once every 9.1 attempts.
Clearly this will be something the team will address in the offseason and in offseason workouts. It is hard to do when you are limited in what you can do in practice, but it will assuredly be a technical focus this offseason.