Special Teams

JHDK

Release Robin's Bra
Special teams are cool and should have their own thread.

I've recently been watching this YouTube channel called Isaac punts and he does concise deep dives into the intricacies of various special teams plays.

Take for example, this one where Dallas has figured out if they basically fake the end around on a kickoff return they throw off the whole return coverage. But that seems pretty easy to fix. Like it's a gimmick that every team now has a book on and so they could be prepared for it. Because if you fake the end around then you're leaving one coverage team guy unblocked. So it shouldn't be that hard for the special teens coach to figure out a way for that guy to become a spy the same way they leave a a linebacker or a safety sometimes for quarterbacks that are known to scramble.

I never like giving Dallas credit for anything... It feels a lot like praising Hitler for being a good artist ...but it is cool that they figured this out. I'm just saying if I know about it now there's no way it will last. Every team has a fucking book on it.



This on the other hand is not so much a gimmick as it is the special teams coordinator just figuring out a loophole in the rule. So we all know the linebacker can't jump over the center during a field goal right? That was outlawed years ago... But that rule does not apply to a tackle or somebody lined up on the line of scrimmage. So what the browns did against the Eagles was they had the defensive tackle simply hold down the back of the Long snapper's back as soon as he hiked the ball so he couldn't get up and then they had the guy next to him jump over him and get the block. It's kind of genius.

This guy kind of makes the argument that is it should be banned but I would make the argument that a good special teams coach can figure out a way to prevent it from happening in the first place.

 
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Is this a good thread to discuss the clusterfuck that is NFL kickoffs this year?
Yeah you're totally right... I kind of give the NFL credit for changing it to this Xfll rule because it encourages returns over touchbacks and touchbacks are fucking boring.

What I did not anticipate is that the returns are all shitty and basically 30 yards at best so the same thing as a touchback. I bet I can guess pretty close to the stats. I would say 88% of kickoff returns don't even get to the 30. I'm going to ask Gemini now to see if I was right...

Okay, I was a little pessimistic with my estimate. I guessed 22% Gemini says if you average it out 35%.

 
Yeah you're totally right... I kind of give the NFL credit for changing it to this Xfll rule because it encourages returns over touchbacks and touchbacks are fucking boring.

What I did not anticipate is that the returns are all shitty and basically 30 yards at best so the same thing as a touchback. I bet I can guess pretty close to the stats. I would say 88% of kickoff returns don't even get to the 30. I'm going to ask Gemini now to see if I was right...

Okay, I was a little pessimistic with my estimate. I guessed 22% Gemini says if you average it out 35%.

My observation is that your best option is a touchback. The chance of a hold or penalty pushing you back on a return is very high. Seems to happen on most of the non-touchback returns.

And as for the more touchbacks --- this was the NFLs doing when they moved up the kickoff. They said too many players were getting injured during a return. So if they want less touchbacks, move it back again.
 
All right, I know I'm getting off topic from special teams here, but I think all these kickoff penalties were not anticipated by the NFL...

As far as penalties are going, is the NFL encouraging refs to call illegal man downfield? Because it seems to be called more aggressively this year than ever in the 30 years I've been watching football.

And I get it. If you're an o lineman you have to hold your block. If you let go of your block past 5 yd and then engage in another block or just run run around not covering anyone, you're illegal. This is not new. This has been a rule for a while. Why am I seeing flags all over every field for it this season?

Going into the season I thought the hip drop tackle would be the thing we all got mad about because the refs would throw a shit ton of flags for it but banning that doesn't seem to matter at all. Like I think I've maybe seen one flag for it in every football game this entire season
 
All right, I know I'm getting off topic from special teams here, but I think all these kickoff penalties were not anticipated by the NFL...

As far as penalties are going, is the NFL encouraging refs to call illegal man downfield? Because it seems to be called more aggressively this year than ever in the 30 years I've been watching football.

And I get it. If you're an o lineman you have to hold your block. If you let go of your block past 5 yd and then engage in another block or just run run around not covering anyone, you're illegal. This is not new. This has been a rule for a while. Why am I seeing flags all over every field for it this season?

Going into the season I thought the hip drop tackle would be the thing we all got mad about because the refs would throw a shit ton of flags for it but banning that doesn't seem to matter at all. Like I think I've maybe seen one flag for it in every football game this entire season
Yes, I made the same comment about the illegal man downfield in the other thread.

But with penalties prevalent on returns, there is no incentive to return the ball.
 
was the NFLs doing when they moved up the kickoff.

You're totally right. That rule change was the beginning of the end for exciting kickoffs.

Well I think they banned the wedge block before they moved the ball up. So maybe that ban was actually the beginning of the end.

That wedge block was freaking cool.



 
Jake fucking sucks all year long and my boy J Elliott fucking nailed it in the game that mattered he got us 16 points. Four field goals and four extra points making it when it fucking matters. That's why we paid this little fucking white twerp, my God I love Jakey Elliott. He is my favorite.

I love special teams so fucking much

My boy jakey struggled with extra points throughout the season but he made them when it mattered fucking clutch. He deserves his money.

Fly Eagles fly motherfuckers.

Ride Jakeys foot on the road to victory
 
My son had him as his kicker on his fantasy team but dropped him because of his unreliability on PATs. Plus the Eagles tendency to skip the PAT entirely and do a tush push if there was any penalty.
 
Our punter Braden Mann is having himself a game. He's averaging 57.3 yards per punt with no touchbacks so far.

Last season's average punt length across the entire NFL was 47.6.
 


Special teams are awesome and they don't get nearly enough credit for how awesome they are.
 
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