Special Teams

senoiajacket

Helluva Engineer
Messages
1,066
This might seem crazy, but I didn't think our special teams play was that bad on Saturday. Obviously, there was the Long PR for a TD, but honestly, our coverage wasn't that bad on it. We had the guy pinned to the sideline and we had one guy who failed to do his job and keep him turned in and instead went for the tackle and missed it. If he simply turns him to the sideline there were two guys waiting there for him. So, it wasn't a tota breakdown. Outside of the kick return I would say we were slightly above average. Of course, I would like to see every KO into the end zone for a touchback, but I thought we got the ball fairly deep with good hang time & best of all were able to have good directional KO that made them take the ball in a corner. They average 20.7 per return w/ a long of 29. Skewed somewhat by the pooch a the end of the half, but even that was covered well and they ended up w/ the ball around the 25. Besides the long punt return they got nothing on there other two punt returns and we averaged a solid 45 yards per kick. One kick return for 26, so average there. Two punt returns averaging 11.5 per which is pretty good. Not so sure Stewart shouldn't have let that really long one he caught over the should on the 10 go, but I don't think he knew exactly where he was as he had to retreat 10-15 USA to get it. So all in all, one bad play by one guy, which should be easily correctable. Oh yeah, 5-5 on PATs with everything splitting the uprights!
 

bke1984

Helluva Engineer
Messages
3,143
Yeah I don't know. Three games so far and each has had some pretty bad special teams stuff going on. First game...well we all know

Second game missed XP

Third punt return TD.

Virtually no touchbacks at all on kickoffs.

It's a bad trend that needs to turn around for sure or it's going to cost us (again)
 

danny daniel

Helluva Engineer
Messages
2,493
senoiajacket said:
This might seem crazy, but I didn't think our special teams play was that bad on Saturday. Obviously, there was the Long PR for a TD, but honestly, our coverage wasn't that bad on it. We had the guy pinned to the sideline and we had one guy who failed to do his job and keep him turned in and instead went for the tackle and missed it. If he simply turns him to the sideline there were two guys waiting there for him. So, it wasn't a tota breakdown. Outside of the kick return I would say we were slightly above average. Of course, I would like to see every KO into the end zone for a touchback, but I thought we got the ball fairly deep with good hang time & best of all were able to have good directional KO that made them take the ball in a corner. They average 20.7 per return w/ a long of 29. Skewed somewhat by the pooch a the end of the half, but even that was covered well and they ended up w/ the ball around the 25. Besides the long punt return they got nothing on there other two punt returns and we averaged a solid 45 yards per kick. One kick return for 26, so average there. Two punt returns averaging 11.5 per which is pretty good. Not so sure Stewart shouldn't have let that really long one he caught over the should on the 10 go, but I don't think he knew exactly where he was as he had to retreat 10-15 USA to get it. So all in all, one bad play by one guy, which should be easily correctable. Oh yeah, 5-5 on PATs with everything splitting the uprights!
Click to expand...

Have to disagree on the punt return coverage. There was no lane running and no containment. Virtually every player converged very quickly to the ball. No lane running or containment discipline.. I don't know whether it was poor coaching (preparation) or lack of player discipline, but either way it was very poor play.
 
dressedcheeseside

dressedcheeseside

Helluva Engineer
Messages
14,044
senoiajacket said:
This might seem crazy, but I didn't think our special teams play was that bad on Saturday. Obviously, there was the Long PR for a TD, but honestly, our coverage wasn't that bad on it. We had the guy pinned to the sideline and we had one guy who failed to do his job and keep him turned in and instead went for the tackle and missed it. If he simply turns him to the sideline there were two guys waiting there for him. So, it wasn't a tota breakdown. Outside of the kick return I would say we were slightly above average. Of course, I would like to see every KO into the end zone for a touchback, but I thought we got the ball fairly deep with good hang time & best of all were able to have good directional KO that made them take the ball in a corner. They average 20.7 per return w/ a long of 29. Skewed somewhat by the pooch a the end of the half, but even that was covered well and they ended up w/ the ball around the 25. Besides the long punt return they got nothing on there other two punt returns and we averaged a solid 45 yards per kick. One kick return for 26, so average there. Two punt returns averaging 11.5 per which is pretty good. Not so sure Stewart shouldn't have let that really long one he caught over the should on the 10 go, but I don't think he knew exactly where he was as he had to retreat 10-15 USA to get it. So all in all, one bad play by one guy, which should be easily correctable. Oh yeah, 5-5 on PATs with everything splitting the uprights!
Click to expand...
The only thing "good" about that PR td was the punt.
 

Jean-Baptiste Rochambeau

Banned
Messages
2,077
bke1984 said:
Yeah I don't know. Three games so far and each has had some pretty bad special teams stuff going on. First game...well we all know

Second game missed XP

Third punt return TD.

Virtually no touchbacks at all on kickoffs.

It's a bad trend that needs to turn around for sure or it's going to cost us (again)
Click to expand...

We are probably going to lose two more games on account of kicking issues. A guy like Harrison Butker comes along once in a blue moon. He is gone. We are going to have to make do with the guys we have.
 

takethepoints

Helluva Engineer
Messages
5,897
dressedcheeseside said:
The only thing "good" about that PR td was the punt.
Click to expand...
Bingo! And that's the one thing about our special teams play that nobody else - except Senoia - has mentioned: we are punting the ball extremely well. This was especially noticeable in contrast to the punter for Pitt, who was really good at his trade. It's beginning to look like our punting is in good hands going forward. If Harvin can kick like that when he's hurt we're in good shape. What I really like is the hang time he gets on his kicks; they look like they're going into orbit sometimes.

Now, if we can only avoid mistakes that make all his good work go for naught …
 
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