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Why Tackling is 'Huge Emphasis' for Bolts Defense Heading Into Week 8

FTP W8 10.24

The Chargers defense left Monday's game feeling like they left a lot on the table.

The numbers aren't eye-popping, as they held their opponent to under 20 points for the fifth time in six games this season.

But as Chargers Defensive Coordinator Jesse Minter expressed Thursday at the podium, their performance was not up to the level they would've expect, especially when it came to the fundamentals.

"There was some good and bad," Minter said. "I don't think it was one of our fundamentally better games."

He later added: "As a whole group, not up to our standard of what we expect in those certain areas of football."

Something that was high on the list according to Khalil Mack? Tackling.

And they made sure to attack it in Thursday's practice.

"It's definitely something we were working on today," Mack said.

The Chargers defense hadn't had an issue with tackling through the first five games as they sat among the league's best defenses in multiple categories.

But last game, Minter said he counted 16 missed tackles from his team and it turned out to be a pivotal aspect of the game.

A lot of those were when trying to bring down Cardinals running back James Conner who, according to Pro Football Focus, forced 12 missed tackles on his own in Week 7.

It came down to the details, and the group are attacking them with the hope of not having a repeat performance this week.

"A lot of them to me were, we talk about it all the time, the angles to the ball and the approach," Minter said. "When you play a really good back like Conner and his size, his ability to stiff arm, you can't leave your feet, you can't a yard away from him and try to dive, he knocks that down. You got to take the extra steps. We had multiple instances of that.

"It's always a huge emphasis but particularly when you have a game like that, it becomes even more of an emphasis," Minter added. "I'm looking forward to our guys chasing the detail and tackling better this game."

Check out the best photos from the first practice of Week 8 on Wednesday at The Bolt in El Segundo, CA.

The defensive playcaller's point about the details were echoed among the players in the locker room this week as well.

Linebacker Daiyan Henley assessed his performance in Week 7 when it came to tackling and how he has worked on it throughout the week.

"Me personally, I don't want to speak about the team. But for me, the details lacked for myself as far as footwork and getting to contact," Henley said. "Just trying to focus on those.

"It's hard in the NFL to get those tackle reps throughout a week because you don't go to the ground [in practice]," Henley added. "We just have to show up. Me personally, I feel like I could have showed up better and done more."

And while midweek practices can't recreate game action to the full extent, the avenues to improve on tackling are there in a lot of different ways — and it serves as a learning experience for the unit.

"I feel like you can attack tackling from a mental standpoint and a technique standpoint based on how we were missing the tackles Monday night," Mack said. "It was one of those things that we got to do all we can physically [in practice], but not do too much."

Mack later added: "Every game you can learn something different, you get attacked differently. Just something you have to learn from and get ready for New Orleans running attack because I know they have a great run scheme and a great run game as well."

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