How many missed tackles have we witnessed over the years as Bengals fans, independently causing our arms to reach for the heavens and shout, "why o' why can't they just tackle?" That's when God booms his booming voice and says, "well, it is the Bengals." Why can't you do something about that, Bengals fans plead. "Dude, there's nothing I can do with Mike Brown in charge."
Yet that reality seems to be transcending most NFL games, with general tackling appearing as poor today as ever. For the purposes of Cincinnati, the Bengals have several players high on the league's top missed tackles list over the course of three seasons.
According to Pro Football Focus, Robert Geathers has missed 12 of 69 tackles, averaging 9.17 attempts/miss from 2008 through the 2010 season. Only eleven defensive linemen had poorer ratios. Linebacker Keith Rivers is averaging 8.52 attempts/miss, which ranks fourth-most among linebackers behind Julian Peterson, Scott Shanle and Jonathan Vilma.