Chiefs get back to full pads at practice to improve tackling

One of the biggest takeaways from the Kansas City Chiefs loss to the Denver Broncos is that the Chiefs were not very good at tackling. That's been a problem on and off all season but it was clearly evident in Sunday night's loss to Denver.

So how do the Chiefs solve a tackling problem in the middle of the season?

They practice tackling in full pads. BJ Kissel reports that the Chiefs, who only get 14 padded practices a year, used a padded practice on Wednesday.

Teams are tackling less in practice later in the season so it makes sense the tackling may not be up to par. Add in the cold weather and injuries that pile up and you have a recipe for some poor tackling. But the thing is, the rules are the same for everyone, so that shouldn't be a good excuse for the Chiefs to use.

Chiefs coach Andy Reid said on Wednesday that it goes back to the fundamentals of tackling.

"Well there's some things you can do fundamentally," Reid said, via quotes from the Chiefs. "I always go back to the techniques, fundamentals, angles - those are things you can work on and we will do that."

The tackling has to get better. That's easy to say but Andy Reid and the players have the hard job in actually accomplishing that.

"The one thing about this crew here, this football team," Reid said, "is they will work on whatever seems to be a negative to try to fix that problem, which I think, is a real strength of this team."