<p>In this paper we examine game data from the National Football League (NFL) to uncover insights on how defensive teammates collectively bring down offensive ballcarriers. Traditional defensive statistics focus on individual tacklers, which is certainly vital, but in a team game more than one defender often contributes to a stop. We found that individuals who slowed down ballcarriers had a strong positive correlation with tackles. We also found that the distance that defensive players were from ballcarriers was a statistically significant predictor of ballcarrier speed. We were particularly interested in the influence that defender distances had on ballcarrier speed deceleration, leading to a tackle. We conclude with recommendations for coaches, agents, and front office executives. This paper aims to contribute to the sports analytics topics of player evaluation and performance analysis using player-tracking data, regression modeling, and data science techniques.</p>