ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Among the characteristics needed to make 19 solo tackles in one game is football instincts -- an awareness of where to go before the ball arrives.
Alex Singleton has that.
Another requirement is toughness. Football isn’t for everybody. Tackling is a collision and collisions can hurt the body if the body hasn’t been toughened.
The 6-foot-2, 240-pound Singleton has demonstrated toughness and then some over the years.
Something else a football player must have in order to make 19 solo tackles in one game is joy. A pure joy in playing the game. Singleton is often seen on the field celebrating a big play, a formidable stick, especially if it's made by one of his teammates.
Singleton didn’t celebrate all of his 19 tackles Monday night against the Chargers, or the game would still be going.
But the joy is seen through his frequent in-game smiles and attaboys.
“I love it. There’s nothing better,’’ he said Thursday inside the Broncos’ locker room at UCHealth Training Center. “Football’s the best thing you can do.”
The 19 solo tackles against the Chargers were one off the unofficial NFL record. Tackles were such a haphazard statistic – a liberal tackle counter in that press box; a stingy recorder of stops in another -- that current NFL statisticians only recognize them back to the 1994 season. That's 10 years after Randy Gradishar retired, for those wondering why the leader of the Broncos’ famed Orange Crush defense isn’t in the Hall of Fame.
In the modern era of the modern era, the single-game tackles record is 20, set by the New York Jets’ David Harris in a game against Washington in 2007. Singleton, then, had the NFL’s best tackle game of the past 15 years.
“He’s a ball magnet,’’ Denver defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero said. “During the course of the game, you don’t realize how much production he’s having, and then you go back and look at the box score and look at the film. It’s a credit to him and it’s no surprise just based on who he is. Like I said, he has a nose for the ball. He can go find it, and he can tackle and get people down.”
Most solo tackles in a game (since 1994):
- 20 - David Harris, NYJ, 2007 vs. WAS
- 19 - Alex Singleton, DEN, 2022 vs. LAC
- 19 - Derrick Brooks, TB, 2000 vs. BUF
- 17 - five times, twice by SF’s Patrick Willis
“Honestly, I didn’t even notice,’’ Singleton said of his tackles total. “Obviously I just wanted to win. That was the biggest thing. It’s a team sport.”
The bad thing about making so many tackles is they came off an astonishing 93 defensive plays.
It’s no surprise Singleton was sore come Tuesday morning.
“Oh yeah. I’m still pretty tired,’’ he said. “And I think that is more from the 90-plus plays than the tackles.”
Here's the kicker: Singleton is a backup linebacker. In the two games that Denver's two starting inside linebackers, Josey Jewell and Jonas Griffith, were healthy from kickoff to gun, Singleton didn't play a single defensive snap.
Yet, he still leads all Broncos with 47 tackles, 10 more than runner-up Kareem Jackson.
“He’s such an instinctual player,'' head coach Nathaniel Hackett said. "I think the scheme fits him and he understands it and understands how to fit off things.”
SUGGESTED VIDEOS: Sports
