Boiled down to its base elements, special teams did win the game. A blocked FG keeps CSU from scoring in OT, a made FG wins it.
Our special teams have gotten a lot better, IMO.
AllBuffs | Unofficial fan site for the University of Colorado at Boulder Athletics programs
This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!
-
Prime Time. Prime Time. Its a new era for Colorado football. Consider signing up for a club membership! For $20/year, you can get access to all the special features at Allbuffs, including club member only forums, dark mode, avatars and best of all no ads ! But seriously, please sign up so that we can pay the bills. No one earns money here, and we can use your $20 to keep this hellhole running. You can sign up for a club membership by navigating to your account in the upper right and clicking on "Account Upgrades". Make it happen!
Weekly "Fire Neinas" thread (week 3)
- Thread starter Buffnik
- Start date
Boiled down to its base elements, special teams did win the game. A blocked FG keeps CSU from scoring in OT, a made FG wins it.
Our special teams have gotten a lot better, IMO.
One partly good game does not a decent coach make.
Our failure to cover the opening KO put us in a hole from the start. We lost the punting game and we had a very makeable FG blocked on a blown protection.
We had one solid KO return but also gave up a couple other than the long one to open the game.
He hit the ball bad so I don't know if it had any impact but the snap and hold at the end of regulation was lousy as well.
We stunk last year at the start of the season then got better as we did in M2's first season. Can't afford a ST coach who needs 3 games to start getting us looking like a competent unit each year. This isn't the NFL with exhibition games to iron out the kinks, these games count.
Poor opening kickoff, blocked FG before half, and a missed FG to end regulation. I am glad plays were made in OT, but again, it was a mixed bag. If there was ever a true team win, this was it. All three phases had clear ups and downs.
SerenityBuff
Well-Known Member
It was coaching. MacIntyre said in his post practice interview today that they work on that specifically.
Here's where I am: Special teams rarely win games, but they can certainly lose them. Yesterday, it's up to debate whether they won the game, but there's no debating that they certainly didn't lose it. Had we lost, it wouldn't have been the fault of our special teams. All I ask for from special teams is to not screw it up. That's been too much to ask ever since Mason Crosby graduated. Yesterday, special teams was more than adequate. Call it coaching, call it execution because we finally have some decent players we can plug into special teams roles, call it crappy special teams play on CSU's part. However you choose to classify it, special teams isn't the Achilles heel it once was.
Then I stand corrected. That was a hell of a play. But I'd rather have consistent punting and field goals and coverage 9 times out of 10. We lack the necessary consistency (Diego has been good).
From CUBUFFS.com
Sticking them inside the 20 is hugely important. 40yds avg is decent, but still needs to get better. On the right trajectory though.
Sticking them inside the 20 is hugely important. 40yds avg is decent, but still needs to get better. On the right trajectory though.
BUFFS14
Well-Known Member
It is. Depending on the kicker and how his foot makes contact with the ball he will want it leaning to help get the sweet spot of the ball.
BehindEnemyLines
beware the habu
Thanx.
The point here that keeps getting missed about Nienas (other than his pathetic recruiting) is not that things got better this game but that three years in a row we are going into the third game of the season looking to get things straightened out.
You can excuse it away the first year after a coaching change. Teams are adjusting to completely new systems. You can even excuse a little bit the second year as they are adjusting to a bunch of new players. This is the third year and we are still screwing around on special teams well after the start of the season, with a dedicated STs coach there is zero excuse for making the STs mistakes we make at this point.
You can excuse it away the first year after a coaching change. Teams are adjusting to completely new systems. You can even excuse a little bit the second year as they are adjusting to a bunch of new players. This is the third year and we are still screwing around on special teams well after the start of the season, with a dedicated STs coach there is zero excuse for making the STs mistakes we make at this point.
BUFFS14
Well-Known Member
Agreed, how many starters do we have playing on special teams? I have not paid attention. We have all talked about our overall lack of P5 talent, is this just another example of lack of talent in this area, especially if only 50% (a guess) of these special teams are made up of starters?
BUFFS14
Well-Known Member
Agreed, how many starters do we have playing on special teams? I have not paid attention. We have all talked about our overall lack of P5 talent, is this just another example of lack of talent in this area, especially if only 50% (a guess) of these special teams are made up of starters?
I think it's wrong. CSU's special teams lost them that game way more than ours won it.
I agree. CU's special teams still need work, but they were the better of the two units out there Saturday.
I can go along with the idea that CSU's special teams cost them the game more than ours won it. I generally don't think special teams wins games anyway, but they can certainly lose them. So if I'm going to be consistent, I would agree that CSU's special teams were atrocious. That doesn't mean ours were dog sh!t, though.
Neinas apparently had nothing to do with the blocked field goal:
http://www.cubuffs.com//ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=600&ATCLID=210358814
CSU Tight End coach also coaches their special teams. So we have a dedicated coach for special teams who got completely clinic-ed by a student. Neinas is absolutely useless on this staff.
man, tedric is the fookin man!
PARTS of the special teams were competent against CSU. It was pretty awesome to see CU block a kick for the first time in a long time. Placekicking was "competent" (made all XPs, 2/4 on FGs including a 52 yarder). However, I think we'd all agree that finishing in the bottom quartile of FBS would not be considered competent. For instance:
- The gross punting for CU, which was touted by CUBuffs.com in an above-quoted article as being an improvement on the season, was 39.1 yds. That would put CU as tied for 104th in the nation. For the season, CU is averaging 35.7 yds, good for 118th.
- One would think with such a low gross punt average that the coverage would be good. However, CU gave up an average of 9.0 yds. per return on 3 punts. That may not sound like much, but it's good enough to move the net punting down to 35.3 yds. That would be tied for 98th worst in the NCAA this season. This is compounded by the fact that CU had to punt twice as much as CSU- the defense was constantly put in a bad position.
- The kick coverage was abysmal. For starters, CSU was able to return 3 out of 6 kicks, meaning that CU was not getting much distance on the kicks. Secondly, CU gave up an average of 30.3 yards on those three returns. If that were extended to the entire season, CSU would rank 12th in the FBS for return yd. average. On the flip side, giving up an average of 30.3 yds on returns would put CU 122nd in FBS. As it is, CU is 82nd.
fire neinas
****ing Neinas and lindgren. Time to upgrade another coordinator.
