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First of all, Marshawn Lynch deserves congratulations for his fantastic touchdown run against New Orleans on Saturday in the NFC Wild Card game, which was the play that basically buried the defending champions in what has to be one of the most stunning upsets in NFL playoff history. The Seahawks won the weak NFC West division with a 7-9 record, and are the first team in league history to qualify for the playoffs with a losing record. After a week of ridicule from the national media, with the general message being that they didn’t belong in the tournament, Pete Carroll’s underdog Hawks played an inspired game and pulled out a shocking win at home. I’m really happy for Lynch’s success, and it’s good that his “Beast Mode” style of running, which never surfaced in Buffalo, came out in full force on that one play, but in my mind the play is another glaring example of what I feel is the biggest problem with the NFL today – poor tackling and on some teams – even supposed contenders – the almost total lack of basic defensive fundamentals when it comes to tackling. Watch a highlight of Lynch’s run, and you’ll see numerous examples of Saints’ players standing around, and quitting on the play when it appears that their teammates have Lynch contained, only to wind up flat-footed and embarrassed when Lynch winds up breaking the tackle. The Saints won the Super Bowl last season because their defense was able to create turnovers in bunches, but they have never been a physical defense, and were unmasked on Saturday by a much weaker opponent. In the game that ended the New York Giants’ playoff hopes – the shocking comeback win by the Eagles in which DeSean Jackson returned a punt for a touchdown – there was a Giant player who was close enough to catch Jackson near the goal line on the play, but that player quit on the play, and as a result, Jackson hot-dogged his way completely across the field before crossing the goal line, an antic that in my mind should have been flagged as an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. The attitude of a lot of today’s players can be summed up by this statement, attributed to Eagles cornerback Asante Samuel: “They pay me to intercept passes, not to make tackles.” Oh, really? A defensive player saying he isn’t responsible for making tackles? No wonder Bill Belichick got rid of him years ago, even though he was supposedly a Pro Bowl caliber player. One playoff game I’m looking forward to this weekend is the Ravens – Steelers matchup in Pittsburgh. When they played in the postseason in 2008, it was one of the most physical, bruising defensive games, by both teams, I remember watching in a long time. It’s a game that shapes up as a highlight reel defensive game – the type coaches around the league should be required to show their own players as an example of how the game is supposed to be played on the defensive side of the ball.