Adam Archuleta And Tackling

In yesterday's game against the New England Patriots, Adam Archuleta led the Washington Redskins defense with ten tackles in regular defensive plays. Normally, a football team does not want their safety to be the leading tackler because it usually means the tackles are occurring downfield and the opponent is able to move the ball at will. Such was the case with Archuleta.

Of his ten tackles, five of them stopped New England from having a successful play, the other five did not, and the tackles came an average of 8.6 yards past the line of scrimmage. To his credit, Archuleta performed much better when his tackles came against the run. When he involved himself in running plays, the offense only gained the sufficient amount of yardage one time and the other four tackles came 1 yard past the line of scrimmage on average. Overall, his run tackles gained 3.2 yards per play.

On pass plays, the story is the complete opposite. Instead of stopping the offense four out of five times, his tackles came on four of five successful plays for the Patriots an average of 14 yards downfield. His tackling totals were high, but they were not very effective, but then again, the Redskins defense as a whole gave up 41 points, but there was not much stopping from anywhere.

Fortunately for the Redskins, they have shown an utter disdain for the pre-season and need to keep their starters as healthy as possible since they have little depth.