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Why is it that we cant find someone to kick an extra point or punt 35 yrds. Last year Nate Fry and Timchenko were far below average. Neither could hit an extra point and they were seniors. Fry had to run to the side and rugby punt for 20yds

This year an trying an extra point is like sending out the kicking team to try a 45 yrd field goal. Punting I dont even know where to start.

2 missed xp, blocked punt for td and a kickoff returned for a td against us. How can we not have a coach assigned to st only? This isn't high school!!

You forgot a blocked field goal!!!!

And here we thought last year's special teams play were terrible......today was simply unbelievable. I mean, unbelievable! If I didn't witness it with my own eyes, I don't think I could fully understand how bad our special teams have become the last couple years, and today was simply the worst I have ever seen ANY team true and execute special teams play. That was just a horrible exhibition on special teams today, simple horrible.

yeah whoever watches over special teams needs to be fired right now, that is the worst punt formation ever

Lay off the kickers for now, kids.

They are true freshmen. They will improve as the season progresses.

You may cut into the coaching of the squad however.

Rightupinthere wrote:Lay off the kickers for now, kids.

They are true freshmen. They will improve as the season progresses.

You may cut into the coaching of the squad however.

I agree RUIT. I am not blaming Rojas for the blocked punts and returns. That is poor execution by the other 10 guys and poor coaching period. And I think Ellis is injured so I can't blame him for his kicking either. Bitch about the coaching, not the players.

I will say that on at least one of our extra points and the field goal, and a few other kicks, many of the kicks were line drives and were very low kicks. Even the first PAT that we made looked like it almost got blocked. The field goal and the first extra point were liners that we blocked. That is something that must be fixed. Last year we missed a majority of extra points and the few field goals we attempted because they were off line. This year they look like they are lined up, but they are low and being blocked.

As for the punts, the blocked punt for a TD against Buffalo was set up by a high snap. When I saw the high snap, I knew it was over because in that damn formation, our punter is running for his life back there to begin with. The high snap killed the play from the get go and that formation gives no room for error. When we lined up in the second formation, we had excellent protection (no one even came close to blocking that punt through that wall), but then we couldn't wrap up on the tackle and they sprung it for a good return. I'd much rather see us use that formation and practice making a tackle than practicing that formation we are using....or maybe better yet, just line up in that second wall formation and just punt the ball downfield on an angle out of bounds or something. Anything is better than having back-to-back games with punts blocked for TDs.

We are just not good enough to overcome these special teams downfalls. We weren't last year, and we surely aren't this year either. Our opponents are outplaying us big time in all aspects of special teams, they are showing us how to do it right in front of our own eyes and we just seem blind to it. Punting and punt returns, kicking off and kick returns, extra points and field goals, we're getting outplayed in all these areas.

Clearly, when you're giving up a blocked punt for a TD every game you have a problem with blocking. On the long punt return, the first guy missed, the second guy fell and there wasn't anyone to keep the returner from bouncing outside. You had 10 guys bunched up in the middle of the field. You simply cannot allow that to happen.

They need to ditch the kick offs to zones that require accurate placement of the kick to cover it correctly, they need to ditch the odd punt formations.
Just go back to the basics. Kick offs go deep left or deep right. everyone stays in their lane on coverage or you don't play. On punts, line up in a basic formation with one guy back. Tell Rojas to just kick the damn ball...no rugby nonsense. On the line, you miss a block and you sit.. On coverage, you don't hoild coantainment and you sit.

Take everything back to the basics and give these guys a chance to get their heads back on straight

The reason we had all the guys in the middle of the field was that we were in that clustered max protect formation to try and prevent a block. The spread is designed to stop returns--and it does that OK. So, we abandon it to go to the max protect, and they get a big return. There has to be a middle ground! If we go to max protect, maybe you kick out bounds.

Flipper, I think you are right. We are trying to do too much. It would be better to execute a less ambitious plan.

Flipper wrote:Take everything back to the basics and give these guys a chance to get their heads back on straight

Exactly, go back and do the basics. It's what these guys likely did in high school and did well with them, and these formations and attempts haven't worked with us in two years.

When that rugby style punt works, it works like a charm. The ball sails down the field, takes a forward bounce, and either rolls out of bounce or the return man gets pinned by the sideline. When it works, it is beautiful.

The problem is, if it is only going to work once every eight times we do it... Well, you get the idea.

Big Bird needs to get under the ball better when he kicks. I think his leg is strong enough and accurate enough. He is just plain kicking the ball too low. Alozno did a good job of tripping and falling right in front of their return man though. That would have been another touchdown if he hadn't done that.

But above all, what is bothering me the most, our ST are just not playing physical. They aren't wrapping guys up, pushing people around, making hard hits...they just are not playing like they want to win. I would even forgive a few penalties here and there if they would just start playing aggressively.

That rugby punt would work more often if our guys would block aggressively. We would have fewer blocked kicks. Our return guys would get more yardage, and their return guys would get fewer. They just need to start playing aggressively.

Go Falcons!

yea, drop the punter, the punt formation, dont put the punter in to kick Field Goals and for god Sake get a colonospcy to prove the the Coaches head is way up there.

orangeandbrown wrote:The reason we had all the guys in the middle of the field was that we were in that clustered max protect formation to try and prevent a block. The spread is designed to stop returns--and it does that OK. So, we abandon it to go to the max protect, and they get a big return. There has to be a middle ground! If we go to max protect, maybe you kick out bounds.

Flipper, I think you are right. We are trying to do too much. It would be better to execute a less ambitious plan.

If the spread's intention is to hold against returns it failed miserably yesterday! We did not have any successful punting yesterday, if we didn't get our kicks blocked then we let Buffalo return them up to either near or at the place we kicked from. The spread is a failure, and I don't want to crap on anyone because the formation is probably someone's precious invention but it isn't going to work. Even if we had vastly superior athletes (not that our athletes are in any way poor) the formation would be crap. There's probably a reason we're the only team around using it.

MACMAN wrote:yea, drop the punter, the punt formation, dont put the punter in to kick Field Goals and for god Sake get a colonospcy to prove the the Coaches head is way up there.

No matter where you stand on Gregg Brandon right now, you gotta admit this is a pretty good line.