The San Francisco 49ers are having a tough time tackling this season.
And that's not going to be a recipe for success when they travel to take on the Indianapolis Colts in Week 16 on Monday Night Football.
Indy has plenty of reasons to be hopeful for this showdown despite losing resurgent quarterback Daniel Jones to a season-ending injury two weeks ago, subsequently signing veteran Philip Rivers out of retirement to plug the void.
Rivers, 44 years old, isn't exactly going to be challenging the Niners defense deep down the field, and head coach Shane Steichen isn't likely to put Indianapolis' offense squarely on the un-retired quarterback's shoulders either.
Instead, Steichen and the Colts are going to rely heavily on running back Jonathan Taylor, whose league-leading 1,443 rush yards, 16 rushing touchdowns and 103.8 yards-per-game average all have him in strong consideration for the Offensive Player of the Year award.
And that alone spells trouble for a San Francisco defense that's already having difficulty defending against the run.
Digging deeper, there's yet another problem lurking for the 49ers, and it could prove to be disastrous if coordinator Robert Saleh and Co. aren't able to clean it up in a hurry.
49ers' missed tackles could doom them vs. Jonathan Taylor's Colts
Check out the number of tackles the Niners have missed this season, courtesy of the SF Standard's David Lombardi:
- vs SEA: 3
- at NO: 12
- vs ARI: 11
- vs JAX: 7
- at LAR: 4
- at TB: 6
- vs ATL: 7
- at HOU: 10
- at NYG: 12
- vs LAR: 8
- at ARI: 10
- vs CAR: 8
- at CLE: 15
- vs TEN: 11
It seemed as if early season struggles were correcting themselves here, but that was prior to rookie defensive end Mykel Williams' season-ending ACL tear, then linebacker Fred Warner's broken ankle, followed by a multi-week absence by linebacker Tatum Bethune; all three players' presence against the run being missed.
The Tennessee Titan's Tony Pollard helped expose this issue a week ago when he rumbled for 104 yards and a touchdown on just 14 carries.
Taylor, meanwhile, already has 24 broken tackles on the year, and he's just one shy of breaking his career-best number set back in 2021 when he was a first-team All-Pro.
Needless to say, San Francisco presents him with a golden opportunity to do just that.
Hopefully, at least for Saleh's sake, the Titans game revealed the weakness in full light, putting an emphasis on proper tackling technique that should, in theory, limit the kind of damage Taylor and the ground game could potentially do to the 49ers in prime time this Monday night.
Hopefully.