The example used  to illustrate the tidal disruption forces has been the comet Shoemaker Levy 9 (SL9) that broke apart and impacted Jupiter in 1994.  An interesting aspect of SL9, it was obse4rved for 384 days, during which time the comet broke apart into many varying size fragments "range in size from about 500 meters to almost 4 km" according to JPL NASA, http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA01264 1.  JPL NASA further explains "The apparent separation of Q1 and Q2 was only about 1100 kilometers (680 miles) on 1 July 1993 and increased to 28,000 kilometers (17,400 miles) by 20 July 1994"  So it seemed the fragments separated 26,900 kilometers (16,720 miles) over 384 observed days until impact.  This would mean the fragments separated 70 kilometers (43.5 miles) per day throughout the 384 observed days.  JPL NASA SL9 images, impacts clearly visible: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/sl9/image101.html 2, http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/sl9/image301.html 3, http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap980801.html 4 and http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/sl9/images.html 5.
Comparing the behavior and pattern of SL9 from these NASA images to the crater chains such as http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap971209.html 6 and http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/callisto/02281997_full.jpg 7 clearly demonstrates that tidal disruption of mud and ice comets or asteroids were not the cause of these remarkable catinas.  SL9 broke up in varying sizes, thousands of kilometers apart and impacted over many days.  Crater chains of the type we are investigating and questioning are not varied in size, are not thousands of kilometers apart and did not impact over days. The very complexity of uniform size, trajectory, alignment, and timing isn't coming from a comet that broke up.