Special Teams kind of Special

[Noodle]

Bobblehead mentioned this in the Besides the OL, What Are Our Problems thread, but I think it deserves its own thread.

The longest TD drive for the Vikes was 63 friggin yards. They played down hill all game long.

We are ranked 31 (33.9 yds) out of 32 teams on net punting average. That's not only on Kapinos, as the Pack ranks 11th in avg punting yards (45). Where's the friggin coverage?

On Kick offs, the Pack ranks 28th on net KO average (60.9). So teams are, on average, starting their drives at the 30. The Vikes, of course, did way better than that.

With all the team's youth and all those FBs and LBs, how can this be?

And that doesn't even begin to factor in penalties.

This has been a consistent problem for GB under the MM/TT era. Don't championships start with special teams (Desmond Howard, anyone?)?

[bobblehead]

Special in the short yellow bus kind of way is your inference I assume.

To take it a bit farther if you keep 3 FB's, Jarret Bush, and some other guys who don't have any serious upside as position players you really should be a top notch special teams.

This is on TT, MM, and whoever else I can think of. Crosby misses regularly from 45+, and misses clutch kicks all the time. Blackman is explosive, but runs 20 yards a punt side to side. Kampinos is a mid season pick up who beat out our other shitty punter, but I can say one good thing about him....we didn't trade up to take him in the 3rd round.

[Fritz]

This is an area in which I agree with you both. I've defended the defense in another post, and the offensive line as well, but I think the ST play is absolutely inexcusable. As you noted, Bobble, to keep guys like Bush and three fullbacks and linebackers galore cuz they're such great special teams players means you damn well better have a solid unit.

And so far, this unit has sucked.

What the hell is going on?

[Bretsky]

Kapinos is junk; I've noted this time after time after time. He needs to be replaced via free agency or draft

I was really hoping TT would take the stud punter out of the U of Cincy

Unfortunatly he would have to have moved ahead of the Bangals in round five to do so and it's impossible to know they wanted a punter.

Completely agree on other points. We've drafted and kept all these specialists yet we stink there.

[Partial]

Kapinos is junk; I've noted this time after time after time. He needs to be replaced via free agency or draft

I was really hoping TT would take the stud punter out of the U of Cincy

Unfortunatly he would have to have moved ahead of the Bangals in round five to do so and it's impossible to know they wanted a punter.

Completely agree on other points. We've drafted and kept all these specialists yet we stink there.

What about that FSU guy that killed the Badgers last year in the bowl game. He was lights out if I remember correctly.

[pbmax]

Noodle I would think (not positive) that your net numbers will include penalties.

[Noodle]

PB, I suspect you're right, and the way I wrote it was confusing, but my numbers bitching had to do with coverage. I haven't noticed that we get an inordinate amount of penalties on coverage.

The penalties about which I bitched had to do with the return game. It honestly seems like every third return has some laundry associated with it.

That's what was so stunning about the Vike's return game -- not just huge chunks of Lambeau, but no "It's coming back" penalties.

[Patler]

Crosby misses regularly from 45+, and misses clutch kicks all the time.

Crosby's four misses this year are from 49, 51, 55 and 55 yards.
I'm not ecstatic about his performance, but I'm not worried about it,...yet.

[Noodle]

Yeah, anything over 48 or so is no gimmie, especially outside.

It's not Crosby's FG kicking I'm carping about, it's our kick and punt coverage units and our punt returning -- all crap.

I thought young guys were supposed to be all hungry and stuff. They should be flying around lighting people up, not getting lit.

[denverYooper]

A little nugget from After Further Review

The Packers’ struggles in kickoff coverage came down to not stopping Harvin from getting vertical and failing to make the tackle when they did. On Harvin’s early 77-yard return, rookie OLB Brad Jones tried to play outside a block instead of through, preventing teammates from overlapping to the ball. On the key 48-yarder in the third quarter, CB Tramon Williams let Harvin get around the edge, but it wouldn’t have been an issue if OLB Brady Poppinga hadn’t tried to play under a block, letting Harvin escape.

[3irty1]

IMO this is the biggest tragedy of the team. Even more so than the OL. The players already mentioned aren't viable backups and also suck at their "specialties."

[bobblehead]

Crosby misses regularly from 45+, and misses clutch kicks all the time.

Crosby's four misses this year are from 49, 51, 55 and 55 yards.
I'm not ecstatic about his performance, but I'm not worried about it,...yet.

I get that patler, but my bigger concern is the WAY his kicks look. Some kickes boot from the hash, the ball takes off and then straightens out....funky like, but when crosby kicks it is dead nuts straight on. If the kick is from one hash he has to try to squeek it in that post to make it, if he pushes or pulls it, it continues to fade way too much and he pretty much misses every time outside of 45 this season.

Statistically he matches up ok, but he missed 2 game winners last year and I can't quantify this, but I just don't "like" his kicking. I feel like is almost definately missing from 50+ and for a guy with a mountain of leg he should be better on long ones.

[red]

yes, i completely agree. and i made the same comment in the game thread

we keep all these guys solely for special teams, and they still suck at it

[denverYooper]

What's puzzled me more is that we chose to promote from within the special teams staff after last year's woes.

[Smidgeon]

What's puzzled me more is that we chose to promote from within the special teams staff after last year's woes.

It's kind of like how he chose his first D-Coordinator: just promoted someone who was there instead of going and finding the best available. Who knows? Maybe Vanilla Bob and Shoddy Slocum had amazing interviews. But it seems to be the same kind of decision he made the first time.