There was a published report accusing the Jets of missing 17 tackles against San Francisco.
We can’t verify that, but Mike Pettine was asked to respond to his shocking number.
“Some of the missed tackles, a lot more occurred in space than should have,” Pettine said. “Usually, if we’re playing our techniques right and we can get an edge set and get the ball carrier kind of hemmed in, it’s much harder to miss a tackle when it’s in a tighter space.
“There were times where I know Bart missed a few. There were some situations where he just couldn’t change direction (Bart has a turf toe) and it was just too much space for him to move in. Some of it was due to the poor play inside that made the gap bigger than it should have been.
“I never saw it as an effort thing. Sometimes, it was a technique – you have to sink, lower your center of gravity, especially against some of these backs that have the make you miss ability. There were times where it was our pad level, and again, that’s stuff we emphasis tackling each week. Every day we’re in pads, the padded practice we have, we tackle. We try to coach it up the best we can.”
