Washington’s Shawn Springs tries to bring down New York’s Brandon Jacobs with a shoulder tackle. The Pats will have to do better than that.

AP / Bill Kostroun

PHOENIX — Poor tackling is more than merely a problem in the National Football League these days.

“It’s a disaster,” says Joel Collier, who coaches the Patriots defensive backs.

The Pats, like every other team in the NFL, are trying to get their arms around this tackling problem.

The problem is that nobody seems to put their arms around a ball carrier any more when they make a tackle.

“It’s amazing,” Collier said. “It makes you shake your head. You worry because guys aren’t fundamentally sound. They’re not going in with their heads up and wrapping people up with their arms. I’ve been around the game my whole life, and I’ve seen it evolve.”

Or devolve, as the case may be.

The art of tackling in the NFL has gotten worse, not better, over the years. Maintaining the metaphor, tackling has, in artistic terms, gone from Realism to Abstract Impressionism.

You could even say finger painting, if not for the fact that nobody seems to want to lay a finger on the ball carrier.

Instead, they want to hit him with a shoulder.

Rather than haul ball carriers to the ground, defenders prefer to cut the feet out from under them. They want to block them, not tackle them. Instead of taking the opportunity to put some hurt on a ball carrier, defenders sometimes seem worried about getting hurt themselves.

“I guess,” said Collier, “there’s a level of thinking where guys are concerned about their arms and shoulders — that, if they expose them, there’s potential for injury.”

In much the same way fundamentals such as shooting and passing have deteriorated in basketball at all levels, young football players see what’s happening in the NFL and copy it.

“Young guys watch the pros,” Collier said, “and think: ‘Well, he does it that way. I’ll do it that way, too.’ So you see a lot of shoulder tackling in college and high school, too.

“I go back to my old high school, in Colorado, and watch their tackling drills. The coaches are teaching the right way to tackle. I’m impressed by how much time they spend on it. The kids know what they’re supposed to do. It’s just that they don’t always do it.”

The Patriots, as their 18-0 record indicates, do a better job of tackling than most NFL teams. But, while their record may be perfect, their tackling techniques aren’t always.

“Sometimes we do,” said Collier, “and sometimes we don’t. Because Bill [Belichick, the Pats head coach] is ‘old school,’ it does not go unchecked. It gets talked about in meetings, and we do something about it in practice.

“Some of the problem may be a result of the style of football that’s played now, where speed in the secondary is more important than size.”

It is of critical importance tomorrow that the Patriots bring down New York’s huge and powerful running back, 6-foot-4, 265-pound Brandon Jacobs.

He averaged 4.5 yards on 15 carries in the final game of the regular season at Giants Stadium, when New England rallied from a 12-point deficit in the second half to pull out a 38-35 victory.

“I think a lot of times,” veteran strong safety Rodney Harrison said, “guys rely strictly on athletic ability. As you get older, you have to rely more on technique.

“I see guys who are supposed to be so fast, who are supposed to be so athletic, get beat for touchdowns because they don’t have good technique.”

Yet, if you watched the Giants game, you saw Harrison try to bring down Jacobs by hitting him low with his shoulder in a sort of rolling block, rather than wrapping him up.

It’s a bigger problem with smaller players than it is with large linemen.

“I couldn’t imagine tackling that way,” Pats defensive end Ty Warren said. “I don’t think they’re being taught the proper fundamentals.”

Jarvis Green says defensive linemen can’t tackle the way so many defensive backs, and even linebackers, often do in the open field.

“We come off blocks,” he said, “and the running back is right in our face.”

Collier, like Belichick, learned proper tackling technique from his father. Belichick’s late father, Steve, played in the NFL, and was a longtime assistant coach at the Naval Academy. Joe Collier was one of the most highly respected defensive coordinators in the NFL with Denver.

“I know you can tackle better,” said Joel, who played linebacker at Northern Colorado, “if your arms are around the guy.”

jdonalds@projo.com