Watching Egg Bowl replay on ESPNU and just saw the blocked punt again. We gave Baker some grief for bobbling the snap but I think it would've been blocked regardless. The replay from the end zone camera showed the guy that blocked the punt just basically ran around #44 Christian Holmes, who didn't even try to block him before running downfield to cover the punt. It looked like an 8th grade team, absolutely inexcusable punt protection, and that is a prime example of why Mullen HAS to hire a special teams coach in the offseason. In their after the season meeting, Stricklin needs to tell Mullen that he will be giving up coaching special teams and hiring someone else. It doesn't need to be a request, but a requirement. Hell, write it into his contract if you have to. But we can't afford for Mullen to "coach" special teams anymore, especially with the potentially great season we have a chance to have next year.
Egg Bowl blocked punt
- Thread starter FlotownDawg
- Start date
How about not calling a pass play on 2nd down with a true freshman QB? Nothing but bad things comes from that play call.
Also, how about telling our center not to play matador to Kimdechee. That's what got us trouble on the 2 yard line.
The whole
sequence of events, from the fair catch inside the 10 to the punt block, was awful management.
sequence of events, from the fair catch inside the 10 to the punt block, was awful management.
Yeah that fair catch gets overlooked. Dumb decision. That ball was a spiral that was going to hit on the five and theres no way it doesn't make it to the endzone.
Only time during the night that I got MADD!
Backed up like that, and with time left, you know that they are coming every dang play.
Running out of the shotgun there, really cost us.
Backed up like that, and with time left, you know that they are coming every dang play.
Running out of the shotgun there, really cost us.
Yes, it really was. Like Desoto says, a lot of people have overlooked the fact that we should have gotten the ball on the 20 on that possession. I jumped out of my chair when Lewis caught that ball. Just stupid. I know he's a fast, elusive player and he's done a lot of good things for us in other areas, but he's just killed us on punt returns time and time again this year.
The punter should have gotten a game ball
He pinned the bears around their 10 yard line 4 or 5 times, not including the one where the ball was coming to rest on the two yard line
and our players knocked it into the endzone. He did a great job, Freeze mentioned it in his remarks, that we kept the field flipped on them.
He pinned the bears around their 10 yard line 4 or 5 times, not including the one where the ball was coming to rest on the two yard line
and our players knocked it into the endzone. He did a great job, Freeze mentioned it in his remarks, that we kept the field flipped on them.
Exactly, not all on
Punter and snapper. Comedy (horror show) of errors from catch to block.
Punter and snapper. Comedy (horror show) of errors from catch to block.
not true.
Baker got the grief because he deserved it. Look where he ends up after bobbling the snap. You can't do that in a regular punt much less in the back of your endzone.
https://imageshack.com/i/j5oi2sj
https://imageshack.com/i/c9t1t3j
https://imageshack.com/i/np07zpj
https://imageshack.com/i/0mr8xcj
https://imageshack.com/i/euipjdj
https://imageshack.com/i/my4oynj
In your endzone you can't take 4 or 5 steps before punting the ball and definitely can't after bobbling the snap. You can clearly see that Holmes got enough body on the defender that the punt should have never been blocked. You can try to blame whoever but there is no doubt this is on baker and he should know better.
Baker got the grief because he deserved it. Look where he ends up after bobbling the snap. You can't do that in a regular punt much less in the back of your endzone.
https://imageshack.com/i/j5oi2sj
https://imageshack.com/i/c9t1t3j
https://imageshack.com/i/np07zpj
https://imageshack.com/i/0mr8xcj
https://imageshack.com/i/euipjdj
https://imageshack.com/i/my4oynj
In your endzone you can't take 4 or 5 steps before punting the ball and definitely can't after bobbling the snap. You can clearly see that Holmes got enough body on the defender that the punt should have never been blocked. You can try to blame whoever but there is no doubt this is on baker and he should know better.
absolutely correct. punt return unit is "special teams", also. As before, pulsus a mortuus equus.
I was a long snapper for 5 years from middle school through high school and Matt made a great point on the radio I could relate to. You've got the distance from the center to the punter shortened from a normal 15 or so yds down to about 11, doesn't sound like much but when you are looking backwards through your legs w/ a 300# lineman breathing down your neck talking bad about your mama and sister and how he's about to drive your neck inside your shoulder pads like a turtle, its lets say, distracting. The snapper then has to adjust his snap which means speed and distance which means short arming it over that you normally would and the punter has to adjust his steps as well. I feel like the bobble had to have something to do w/ the snap being different (same speed maybe but shorter distance which made it arrive faster than normal) and Baker didn't adjust his steps or was so off from the bobble it threw it all out of wack. It goes back to this though, after the first bobble in the end zone w/ Bell earlier in the year and certainly after his second one, it was very obvious that aspect of the game needed to be addressed by THE SPECIAL TEAMS COACH! That is something that has to be practiced, often too, you can't just cover it in Fall camp in August and expect it to work in November. Its a rhythm kind of play, just like a QB and receiver timing is on patterns
Special teams not only was bad, but looked dumb several times:
1. Running FG unit on and then quickly off with a running clock at end of half against SC.
2. Calling punt coverage team to sideline after a delay of game penalty, as if it was a timeout, and them having to rush back on field when ball was set for play (against Arkansas).
3. Punt returner stretching to fair catch a line-drive punt at the 5 yard line.
4. Not calling a max protect on the punt that got blocked. I could be wrong here but it looked like a regular punt formation/coverage call and not a max protect scheme.
1. Running FG unit on and then quickly off with a running clock at end of half against SC.
2. Calling punt coverage team to sideline after a delay of game penalty, as if it was a timeout, and them having to rush back on field when ball was set for play (against Arkansas).
3. Punt returner stretching to fair catch a line-drive punt at the 5 yard line.
4. Not calling a max protect on the punt that got blocked. I could be wrong here but it looked like a regular punt formation/coverage call and not a max protect scheme.
You forgot Dan's bad clock management on the goal line
I was yelling at the T.V after Kimdeeche got that 15 yard flag and we were 1st and goal on the 1. The clock was somewhere around 1:40 seconds left in the half, the clock started when the ball was spotted. Instead of running our play clock down (and therefore the game clock) before snapping, we quick snapped it. We left an extra 35 seconds on the clock needlessly. That was bad.
Then, Jameon caught that ball over his head on like the what? 7 yard line? That was Jameons fault, but Dan (ST guru) has got to remind Jameon to put his heels on the 10 yard line when they huddle before taking the field.
THEN, in a cold weather game, you throw Baker in the fire by putting him in the endzone to punt when Devon has punted every other time in the game. It was a low snap and Baker bobbled it, but still....
It was a bad bad sequence of events that led to that blocked punt. Epitomized our horrible endings to first halves all year.
I was yelling at the T.V after Kimdeeche got that 15 yard flag and we were 1st and goal on the 1. The clock was somewhere around 1:40 seconds left in the half, the clock started when the ball was spotted. Instead of running our play clock down (and therefore the game clock) before snapping, we quick snapped it. We left an extra 35 seconds on the clock needlessly. That was bad.
Then, Jameon caught that ball over his head on like the what? 7 yard line? That was Jameons fault, but Dan (ST guru) has got to remind Jameon to put his heels on the 10 yard line when they huddle before taking the field.
THEN, in a cold weather game, you throw Baker in the fire by putting him in the endzone to punt when Devon has punted every other time in the game. It was a low snap and Baker bobbled it, but still....
It was a bad bad sequence of events that led to that blocked punt. Epitomized our horrible endings to first halves all year.
How did we go from the 7 to the 2? By running the worst, slow developing plays known to football. And our only healthy QB gets hammered in the process. We scored earlier with our QB under center and running in with a lead block. Why not run 3 plays for 5 yards and get out of the back of the endzone? This is not complicated. Question is, will we do same thing under similiar circumstances?