In their Week 5 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Indianapolis Colts missed eight tackles. That means the team whiffed on 13.5 percent of tackle attempts, a number just bad enough to keep a defense from being successful. What's the issue? Linebacker Akeem Davis-Gaither thinks it comes down to willpower.
According to the player who is the green dot on Lou Anarumo's defense, a player isn't going to tackle if they don't want to. What he said specifically seems even worse about his Colts teammates.
According to The Athletic's James Boyd, Davis-Gaither said, "I look at tackling as a ‘want to’ thing. Guys gotta want to tackle, wanna be physical...We already knew coming in that (the Steelers) are gonna get the ball out to they guys and see if you're willing to tackle, if you wanna tackle. To me, it's just a 'want to' thing."
Akeem Davis-Gaither appears to call out his Indianapolis Colts teammates but should blame himself too
That, of course, implies that some players don't truly want to make an effort to hit other players and get hit themselves. Tackling is about proper technique, obviously, but a player does have to choose to put themselves in harm's way and risk themselves to being hurt.
Davis-Gaither wasn't without fault, though. He made six solo tackles, but he also missed two. Missing 25 percent of tackle attempts as an inside linebacker cannot continue to happen.
So when Davis-Gaither continued by saying that he expects Anarumo to make changes if the tackling issue doesn't suddenly get better, he might be one of the needed changes. The problem is that the Colts' inside linebacker group is still a work in progress, and no player has separated themselves from the others in terms of consistent goodness.
General manager Chris Ballard said the plan this past offseason was to have the front seven on the defense get younger and more athletic. The linebacker group was overhauled and is younger overall, but it isn't better. In fact, five games into the season, Indy still doesn't know which duo of players will start.
Davis-Gaither is one of the two starters, but mostly because he has a history in Lou Anarumo's defense when both were with the Cincinnati Bengals, not because he has been a standout performer. Ideally, the green dot on defense is a leader on and off the field, and one who performs at a high level during games. That isn't Akeem Davis-Gaither.
He might be correct about the Indianapolis Colts wanting to tackle, but a leader wouldn't tell the media that about their teammates without also pointing themselves out as part of the problem.
The truth is that the Colts' defense is almost certainly going to be inconsistent and overall underwhelming this season. The first two games were awful, partly because of tackling issues, and allowed the Steelers, who have had a putrid offense, to score more than 30 points and average nearly seven yards per play. That is one reason Indy is under .500 again five games into the season.
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