Bears are ‘tackling too high,’ according to Matt Eberflus

From the first day of youth football, players are taught proper tackling techniques. And while the quality of coaches can vary with every level of football a player participates in, you’d think that by the time they reach the NFL, they’d have the fundamentals down.

In Week 2’s loss to the Green Bay Packers, the Chicago Bears’ defenders struggled with that basic aspect of the game. Coach Matt Eberflus said Wednesday that there’s at least one easy-to-fix reason.

“We are tackling too high right now,” he said. “We’ve got to tackle lower. We’ve just got to do a better job of executing the way we tackle.”

It’s HARD to miss a tackle like this. Kyler Gordon and Jaquon Brisker are young but they are both unblocked here and just need to fill the hole. If you put on an NFL uniform you HAVE TO make this play. #DaBears #Bears #ChicagoBears pic.twitter.com/3WWDwazu3i

— Clay Harbor (@clayharbs82) September 21, 2022

A simple solution for Bears’ tackling problem

“If you take a person’s legs away, they can’t run,” Eberflus said. “So you wanna do that, and it’s been proven to us that when you do that, you put guys sideways or backwards. We did it a few times over the first couple games but we need to see it more consistently.”

It seems pretty basic, doesn’t it? For Eberflus, a coach whose resume is grounded in defense, the frustration is obvious.

“You’re not tolerant at all,” he said. “It’s something we have to correct and we’re going to work tirelessly to get that done.”