Linebacker Lance Briggs was credited with a season-high 15 tackles after coaches finished reviewing game film of Sunday’s loss to Arizona.
It hasn’t been a good number for the Bears, though, as Briggs was also credited with 15 tackles in the loss at Cincinnati. The weak-side Pro Bowl standout now has a team-high 79 tackles, putting him on pace for 158. His career high is 176 in 2006.
Middle linebacker Hunter Hillenmeyer was credited with a season-high 12 tackles. Danieal Manning made nine and Kevin Payne added eight.
The statistic that didn’t show was the number of missed tackles the coaches tallied up. When asked about the Cardinals rushing for a season-high 182 yards, Lovie Smith blamed missed tackles as much as anything. Arizona entered the game averaging less than 65 yards rushing per game.
“How would I explain that?” Smith said. “Again, after a day like [Sunday], I can’t give you a lot of reasons why it happened. It happened. They came in ready to play. The week before it happened to [Arizona]. They didn’t have a lot of success for whatever reason. This week it worked out for them. I’m just hoping that’s the case with us. We’ve played the run fairly well most of the year. We’re sound in our gaps, things like that. We missed tackles. If you want an answer, we missed tackles. There were a couple gaps we were out of.”
