Packer poor Special Teams

[KYPack]

Mike Stock's "retirement" came as no shock after the mediocre play of our ST, combined with the revolving door at punter all season. The Dallas Morning News rated the Packers 26th out of the 32 teams in the league.

The Vikes were 25th, Lions 19th and the Bears 8th in the league. This was a comedown for the Bears who had led the league for two seasons. The move of Devn Hester from KR to WR seems to have lead to the Bears fall.

The Pack were the league's worst in two categories:

Most penalties 24
Worst KR ave 20.1 per kick

From the sound of it, they were lucky to be ranked 26th. With Frost hitting so many bad kicks, I thought they might be last.

[Patler]

Worst in the league with 24 penalties on ST. Worst in the league on KO returns. All accomplished with a roster of guys who have pretty good ST resumes or were thought to be good ST prospects.

MM commented at the start of the season that they had so many good ST performers that he would be faced with having good ST players on the inactive list each game. Didn't turn out that way.

[Waldo]

Worst in the league with 24 penalties on ST. Worst in the league on KO returns. All accomplished with a roster of guys who have pretty good ST resumes or were thought to be good ST prospects.

MM commented at the start of the season that they had so many good ST performers that he would be faced with having good ST players on the inactive list each game. Didn't turn out that way.

When those good ST players become starters due to injury, the cease to be good ST players since they no longer play ST.

[Fritz]

Stop with the logic already, people. Mike Stock's gone now. Let's just blame him.

[Patler]

Worst in the league with 24 penalties on ST. Worst in the league on KO returns. All accomplished with a roster of guys who have pretty good ST resumes or were thought to be good ST prospects.

MM commented at the start of the season that they had so many good ST performers that he would be faced with having good ST players on the inactive list each game. Didn't turn out that way.

When those good ST players become starters due to injury, the cease to be good ST players since they no longer play ST.

I don't buy that argument, because there weren't that many who became starters for extended periods of time. According to MM they had so many good ones to start with that some would be inactive on game days. Once some backups become starters and quit playing ST, others of those "good ones" should have moved from inactive to active on game days.

[Pacopete4]

maybe they overachieved a in 2007.. and weren't really that good to begin with?

[KYPack]

I'd go this way:

33% piss poor coaching
33% bad personnel moves
33% poor play.

-Stock was all ate up to get consistent kicks to the cover from his punter. Ryan was a 3 step punter converted to a 2 step. He would revert to 3 step when he thought he had time. He would also freak when the rush got thru and hit some poor liners with minimal hang time. He loved to bang boomers. All ST coaches HATE long booming kicks. They want a 47 yard kick with sufficient hang time resulting in a fair catch. That 75 yard boomer can result in an 80 yard return for a touchdown some of the time. That is every ST coaches nightmare. Stock was sick and tired of Ryan's act and lobbied management to cut him and bring in Frost. Frost sucked. Stock should have used his coaching skills on Ryan and turned him around OR had a line on a good replacement.

- Stock probably wasn't behind the other bad personnel move. they lost Haynos to the Dolphins by trying to "hide" him on the PS. Two weeks later, the Dolphins came sniffing around after Lasanah. TT promoted him and cut Tracy White. White was the heart & soul of ST. When he left, ST was headless and ran around headless. TT takes some shit on that move.

- Poor play is on the coach and the guys. When ST catches fire, it's contagious. Poor ST play is the same kind of contagious disease, but it spreads even faster. We started playing poor, covering like shit, Crosby missed field goals, and the punting game sucked. We were disorganized, leaderless and had little fire.

We should be good on ST. We have two stars. Crosby is a good kicker and Blackmon is a brilliant return man. Wil can run back punts and kick-offs and is a special guy. We need to get our shit together and develop field leadership and we should be fine.

Retiring Old Mike was the first positive move. If we can get the fire back, we should be OK. The Head Coach needs to make sure the ST coach is getting things back in order.

[Fritz]

KY, I don't know what Tracy White is doing these days, but if he were available, do you see him as valuable enough to give a roster spot to?

[KYPack]

KY, I don't know what Tracy White is doing these days, but if he were available, do you see him as valuable enough to give a roster spot to?

He went to the Eagles after we cut him. About 5-6 weeks after the Eagles got him, the Eagles played the Bengals in Cincy. I was there. Tracy played like dog shit. He got out of his lane twice. I saw an aging vet who should have known better trying to do too much. After one kick, their ST coach chewed his ass during the game. That dosn't happen a lot. That usually happens on Monday, unless you really fuck up. Tracy really fucked up. He must have played better than that (The Eagles tied the Bengals in one of the worst ST games I saw all year), cause the Eagles kept him.

ST is a team game. Stay in your lane. Do your job. Fly to the ball, but never, ever get out of position. I think we need to create another Tracy White. He was a back-up backer and we'll need all the capable backers we can carry on the roster. But we do need a fiery leader on ST who will get everybody doing their job. We don't have that now. Somebody will want the job. Let's hope they fill it.