Return Coverage

[Hidog78]

I have not , I think, seen much of anything here about the coverage of punts or kickoffs. If you let any team have the ball on the 30 or beyond, your coverage teams are a failure. I have not seen the average starting position of Men. or Au. but it had to be between the 35 an 40 yard line every time. This put to much pressure on the defence to stop them. Is Mullen the special team coach? Special team is the right name for our bunch because they look like they are chasing the last milk dud on the field.

 

[anderlin21]

nm

 

[Sarc Dawg]

it's the kick. I doubt our kickers could make the 10YL consistently. A touchback would require a 80mph wind to their back.

 

[BiloxiDawg]

Mullen has changed his kicking style, especially on field goals. Forced him to go from a 3 step drop to a 2 step drop, place kickers are like golfers - it isextremely mental.

Now as far as kick-offs, I have always hated the pooch kick. Kick that son of a ***** outthe back of the endzoneif your kicker has the leg. </p>

 

[AzzurriDawg4]

We actually kicked one to the goal line last week. Watching the replay I saw a lot of guys getting wiped out and/or taking bad angles.

I don't know if it is fatigue or what, because we have a ton of starters on our kick coverage team. I understand the importance of special teams and our desire to put experienced players in there, but you risk injury and fatigue...I think we need some hungry, motivated B teamers sprinkled in there that know their only chance to see their name in lights is to blow up the return man. It is simplistic, but one problem may be that we are a little too "light" on the kick coverage team, I wouldn't mind substituting a few of our backup LBs for guys like Whitley, Mitchell, etc. I know we need speed in there too but we are getting wiped out by opposing blockers.

 

[Sutterkane]

our special teams also blocked a crucial field goal and recovered a muffed punt that led to a touchdown.

If Mullen has changed Brauchle's FG technique and it's screwed up his kickoff ability, then Brauchle sucks. That'd be like we changed Relf's throwing motion and now he can't pitch the ball properly on option sweeps because he lost his confidence in throwing altogether.

 

[AzzurriDawg4]

I understand your point on field goals, if that is true, but kicking-off is just running on to the ball and booting it.

If we really can't get it to the endzone (which appears to be the case), I wouldnt mind seeing us kicking a bullet/knuckleball about ten feet off the ground - or basically just a squib kick with a little more hangtime. Try to make it land on the 20 and hope for the best, crazy bounces, rolling it into the endzone, whatever.

 

[8dog]

on coverage. We had guys getting blown up left and right.

 

[AzzurriDawg4]

I looked and only found his H.S. touchback stats.

 

[UpTheMiddlex3Punt]

Like kicks getting blocked or the like, but even so you have to weigh the risk and reward. I remember a certain punter named Jeff Walker. It took him a little longer than other punters to get the ball off, but he got really good yardage on his punts (I remember what I think was a 79 yard punt in the 1999 Arky game). Had the Kang made him change, he would probably not have done as well even though he did have a couple punts blocked.

I hope Mullen lets Brauchle go back to his original style, especially on kickoffs.

 

[Dawgwalkcaptain]

Too late to change **** now.

 

[o_GuitarDawg]

If the kick is landing between the 10 and 20yd. lines, and for the most part landing closer to the latter, then the opposite team is going to have good field position. It is not any better that our coverage is pretty horrendous. I think our net avg. on kick-offs is probably somewhere around 20 yards. Our punting hasn't beenthat bad, it's just our coverage that is a little scary. Special teams does need to, as Emeril would say, "Kick it up a notch!" Hopefully Mullen will focus on kicking the ball further because that's where it starts, we've got to get the ball past the 15.