Bengals Safety Jordan Battle Knows Actions, Not Words Will Answer Questions About His Tackling

Cincinnati Bengals safety Jordan Battle heard the comments, and he doesn’t fully agree.

Not the shipload of comments on social media about his missed tackle Sunday against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

“No,” Battle said. “I almost cussed. But no, I don’t pay attention to none of that on social media.”

The comments Battle was challenging were the ones made by defensive coordinator Al Golden on Wednesday when he was asked about Battle’s missed tackle of Jaguars tight end Brenton Strange on third and 18.

Bengals S Jordan Battle Has Plan To Stop Questions About Tackling

Strange added 12 more yards after the miss for a 23-yard gain that gave the Jaguars a first down, eventually leading to a field goal in the first quarter of the Bengals’ 22-17 loss.

“If I'm being completely honest, I don't think the criticism on that one – we've always got to make a tackle; we understand that – but he needs friends on that one,” Golden said. “We've got to gang-tackle that. We have to have our cleats in the ground, vision, we've got to know the down and distance, we've got to know the sticks.

“There should be guys breaking on either side of Jordan,” Golden added. “It shouldn’t be just a one-man show. He knows he's got to be better on that play. I know I have to coach everybody else better to get them where they need to be when that ball is thrown on third and 18.”

Battle appreciated Golden defending him but said regardless of what else was happening on the field, he needs to make that tackle.

“I hold myself to a high pedestal, and my expectation for myself is very high,” he said. “If I’m one on one with the guys, I expect to make the tackle. Yeah, we want more guys around the ball, but if I happen to be the only guy around the ball, I for sure have to make the tackle.”

Missed tackles has been an ongoing theme since Golden took over as defensive coordinator last year.

SportRadar had Battle with 21 missed tackles last season, third most in the league behind then-teammate Geno Stone (26) and Colts linebacker Zaire Franklin (23).

To show how subjective a stat such as missed tackles can be, ProFootballFocus had Battle with 17 missed tackles last year, which was tied for 23rd in the league.

This season, the two stat sites are more aligned, as both show Battle with five. That ranks tied for ninth on SportRadar and 18th on PFF.

Battle offered his theory on why he has struggled with missed tackles.

“I feel like sometimes I just tend to just go full speed, don't break down, just try to run through a guy,” he said. “Later on that drive, I did a better job of coming to, gathering and then getting them on the ground.

“So I gotta work on controlling my speed and just work on getting to a gather and just finish a guy and try to be chest to chest,” he added.

Bengals head coach Zac Taylor also came to Battle’s defense earlier in week.

Taylor wasn’t taking issue with the validity of the missed tackle numbers. He just said he feels as though Battle is making a lot of good plays that are overshadowed because the glare is so bright on the misses.

“I think there’s a lot of great examples of Jordan Battle tackling,” he said. “The (third-and-18) one coming out of the post is the one we got to get on the ground. There are a bunch of other examples where he does come out of the post and get people down with some tough tackles on the sidelines.

“He has to be a standard setter for us in that way,” Taylor added. “It’s a disappointing one for us, the one that got out. But there are some great examples of him doing an excellent job of it.”

Battle suffered a hamstring injury in the Week 3 game at Pittsburgh and has fighting through it given the state of the safety room with fellow safety Bryan Cook dealing with an ankle injury that forced him to miss the Jacksonville game and might keep him out Sunday against Miami as well.

“It was fine,” Battle said of his hamstring. “The second half got a little tight, but it was nothing I couldn’t play through.

“I feel much better right now,” he added. “It’s definitely loosened up, and I feel ready to go.”

The Bengals listed Battle as limited on Wednesday’s injury report, but he was a full participant Thursday.

While Battle doesn’t read the social media comments about his tackling, he does get hear repeated questions about from reporters. And he said he’s fine with that.

“I'm not gonna say it gets annoying because it's what we expect,” he said. “Playing the game of football, we gotta give you guys the answer. You guys are gonna ask the questions, and that’s fine with us. We signed up for this.

“Go out there and be better on the field and make tackles, and we can avoid those questions.”

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