Tackling Dummies: Pitt needs to wrap up New Mexico on Saturday

I was curious to see how many references there would be in Paul Chryst's weekly press conference about poor tackling. Surely, the coach wouldn't disappoint, right?

Nope.

"We’ve got to tackle better"

We’ve got to execute, we’ve got to tackle.”

“I think defensively, it’s tackling better"

"...at some point we’re still going to have to tackle"

"We’ve got to be able to finish with some of our pressures."

Those were all uttered by Chryst during the presser and, safe to say, tackling was on his mind.

Tackling was an issue of epic proportions. I repeatedly told everyone sitting around me at the Florida State game that I couldn't recall a worse effort. Pitt defenders were completely missed at times by athletic players, but there were numerous occasions when Pitt had guys fully within their grasp. Arm tackling was the norm and something I wasn't quite prepared for.

I figured Florida State would be faster and more athletic, and that certainly proved true. But I didn't expect to see so many misses. As I wrote about in the recap, even Pitt's better players like Aaron Donald weren't immune.

Playing New Mexico's option and the nation's leading rusher Kasey Carrier, it goes without saying that Pitt needs to wrap up on Saturday to avoid a disaster.

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