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Special teams

sackman

Hates the Counting Crows.
Club Member
Didn't suck this week. Kickoffs into the end zone. Other than the blocked FG attempt (which we shouldn't have needed in the first place), I was fairly pleased with special teams this week. In fact, it was probably the only part of the game where we didn't totally suck.
 
They were solid outside of the blocked FG and Stewart fair catching at the five yard line again (holy crap:rofl:). More than anything, just nice to see a FG kicker making some from long distance.
 
Agree, kickoffs were not ******, returns were ok I guess, punts were good (it was nice and awful seeing Polk flying down the field in punt coverage), punt returns weren't the worst we've seen this year, field goals were ok.

Much improved. I too thought this was a positive to take away from this game.
 
They were solid outside of the blocked FG and Stewart fair catching at the five yard line again (holy crap:rofl:). More than anything, just nice to see a FG kicker making some from long distance.

Absolutely. It's nice to be confident when the FG kicker trots out there for an attempt. Since Mason graduated, it's been an adventure.

I had forgotten about the fair catch at the 5. I have no explanation for that.
 
They were solid outside of the blocked FG and Stewart fair catching at the five yard line again (holy crap:rofl:). More than anything, just nice to see a FG kicker making some from any distance.
fixed ... but agree with you.
 
They were solid outside of the blocked FG and Stewart fair catching at the five yard line again (holy crap:rofl:). More than anything, just nice to see a FG kicker making some from long distance.

Immediately after Speedy caught that ball and started to trot off the field Embree went over and had a few emphatic words with Brookhart. He then stalked down the sideline and pointed at Speedy in the offense's sideline huddle and Speedy left the huddle and Toney Jones jumped right in. Embree then had some choice words with Speedy and he went and stewed on it for four or five plays. Good to see that JE still sees the problem and is not just going to let these things go as isolated incidents, when the kids screw up he makes it known to the player and the assistant responsible.
 
Remember Speedy having a nice tackle on punt coverage....then thinking to myself, holy **** our depth is so bad that our 5'9 running back is in for every offensive play, every return play and is now tackling guys :wow:
 
Immediately after Speedy caught that ball and started to trot off the field Embree went over and had a few emphatic words with Brookhart. He then stalked down the sideline and pointed at Speedy in the offense's sideline huddle and Speedy left the huddle and Toney Jones jumped right in. Embree then had some choice words with Speedy and he went and stewed on it for four or five plays. Good to see that JE still sees the problem and is not just going to let these things go as isolated incidents, when the kids screw up he makes it known to the player and the assistant responsible.

Watching that play, Speedy is being coached by someone to make the catch. He lined up right at the five, saw where he was, and made the catch. It's not like he was backpeddling and lost sight of where he was on the field.

To be honest, I'm okay with the fair catch at the five on that play. Kickers are pretty good at landing the ball on the five and keeping it close. The ball was coming in almost straight down with a bunch of WSU players in the area. It's a pretty good bet that the ball isn't going to roll quickly into the endzone and much more likely that we start with the ball on the 1 or 2. Even if the ball bounces straight up or rolls back, it's still likely getting downed somewhere inside the 10. The difference between starting on the 5 and the 10 is not that big. The difference between the 1 and the 5 is pretty big.
 
Remember Speedy having a nice tackle on punt coverage....then thinking to myself, holy **** our depth is so bad that our 5'9 running back is in for every offensive play, every return play and is now tackling guys :wow:

Some of our defenders should take lessons from Speedy too... Great tackle.

Sent from my ADR6350 using Tapatalk
 
Most of our defenders should take lessons from Speedy too... Great tackle.

Sent from my ADR6350 using Tapatalk

Even Espinoza is better at tackling than many of our starters on D. He at least wraps up and makes sure the guy goes to the turf.
 
Watching that play, Speedy is being coached by someone to make the catch. He lined up right at the five, saw where he was, and made the catch. It's not like he was backpeddling and lost sight of where he was on the field.

To be honest, I'm okay with the fair catch at the five on that play. Kickers are pretty good at landing the ball on the five and keeping it close. The ball was coming in almost straight down with a bunch of WSU players in the area. It's a pretty good bet that the ball isn't going to roll quickly into the endzone and much more likely that we start with the ball on the 1 or 2. Even if the ball bounces straight up or rolls back, it's still likely getting downed somewhere inside the 10. The difference between starting on the 5 and the 10 is not that big. The difference between the 1 and the 5 is pretty big.

Not much difference starting at the 1 or the 5, both spots suck. Why risk fumbling it, when the week before thats exactly what happened?
 
Not much difference starting at the 1 or the 5, both spots suck. Why risk fumbling it, when the week before thats exactly what happened?

I disagree. Starting at the 1 leaves you extremely vulnerable to a safety. Especially with our OL -- tackled in the end zone or a holding penalty in the end zone equals a safety. On the 5 you have a little more option with your play calling -- at the one you usually run a straight dive or a QB sneak just to get a couple yards of breathing room; on the 5 you can run off tackle or even drop back without putting the OL in the end zone. Assuming you gain zero yards, you also are far enough from the goal line to line your punter up with close to a normal buffer zone. At the one, the punt depth is way off. Especially with our offense (negative runs, bad holding penalties etc.) I feel like fair catch on the five under the circumstances of that play (good punt, way up in the air, dropping straight down, coverage team all around) was not a stupid play.

The risk of fumble in comparison to last week is an apples to oranges comparison. Last week there was no reward to fielding the punt. We were going into half time after the first play and the punt wasn't anywhere near the five (it was out at the 20). This week we needed to mount a drive and either score or punt (or turnover). So, the reward of being on the 5 over the 1 actually made a difference.
 
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Don't forget the offsides on the kick off tho

Embree ripped Thornton a new one on the offsides on the kick, If I quoted anything he said it would be a TOS violation but he made it very clear that he was not happy with that type of error and that the blame laid directly on the player.
 
I must spread some rep around before giving it to Will Oliver again. Step it up, men!
 
Aside from some of the mistakes, the most disappointing thing about special teams is that we don't seem like much of a threat at all on kick returns. Speedy is shifty, but doesn't ever look like he'll take one to the house. On the positive side, it seems like all of Will Oliver's kicks are straight down the middle.
 
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