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Is it me or is wags slowing down . I saw him at least twice yesterday refuse to take on the lead block but trying to run by it and ran himself out of plays. He made some too but I think KJ is playing better right now and wags has a fat wallet

I made the comment that they weren't arm tackles he was missing, they looked like hand tackles. I didn't see him as slower necessarily, more trying to tackle the ball first rather than tackling the player first.

But he's been too good for too long for me not to give him this game as a mulligan. He's still the heartbeat of our defense.

Hawktawk wrote:Is it me or is wags slowing down . I saw him at least twice yesterday refuse to take on the lead block but trying to run by it and ran himself out of plays. He made some too but I think KJ is playing better right now and wags has a fat wallet

I think it's a bit of the DL not keeping the LBs as clean as they did in earlier years. He probably has lost a step, but experience makes up for it and he's
rarely out of position and rarely misses tackles.

Although KJ had a good game overall, I saw a couple of occasions yesterday where he was arm tackling, too. As Vince Lombardi would say "Grab, grab, grab!"

Hawktawk wrote:Is it me or is wags slowing down . I saw him at least twice yesterday refuse to take on the lead block but trying to run by it and ran himself out of plays. He made some too but I think KJ is playing better right now and wags has a fat wallet

Yeah, his angles were not good yesterday. Although he certainly takes on blockers from time to time by and large he makes the big guys miss and flies to the ball. I really think it has to do with the amount that the Hawks are slanting and our DL not taking up two blockers as well as they had in the past. If Snacks Harrison is anywhere near where he used to be that should help. Another thing to look at is that Cody Barton, for whatever reason is not great at filling. He takes on blocks in the open field way to much, and doesn't fill the hole like he should. When Wags shoots and the back has a huge hole one or two gaps out he's not going to be able to make the play and Barton's lack of filling is giving those backs open holes and is hurting this team. He did a great job on that 4th down, but overall he's been bad out there. I know I am saying this as he made 14 tackles last night, but most of those tackles were 5+ yards downfield. A LB, against a running team like the Vikes shouldn't be making tackles that deep on runs. He just seems slow at reading or slow at reacting. Hopefully Brooks makes it back and can play better.