Fair Catch?
- Thread starter Hardg
- Start date
What kind of actual confidence do you have that they will even get past the 20? Our return teams are horrible. I can't believe TJ tried to return the one against MSU last week when we were up 8. He got crushed and is lucky he didn't fumble.
Then today you had Anthrop let a kickoff hit the ground and O$U covered it. Answers need to happen on the special teams unit.
Most if not all of those fair catches had a 10 yard buffer when ball was caught. Are you saying that you would rather surrender for an extra 5 yards than risk it for a potential reward? It’s a different story if it is kicked into the end zone but fair catching at the 10 with a 10 yard buffer? They obviously have already determined “we surrender” before the ball is kicked. That is a p_ssy attitude for football.
Long returns are the equivalent of a turnover so why not try for it rather than surrender for 5 yards or at most 10 yards?
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Really? I would prefer to have confidence in my players and live with the consequences rather than tell them to surrender.
We can agree to disagree. I am not being paid to make the decisions so it’s just my opinion and we are all entitled to our own.
Also, yeah, they probably do have a 10 yard buffer, but when the defense is coming full speed, and you're starting from zero, 10 yards is not a lot. Unless you have blocking of course...
And with the way our offense is playing now I'll take first down on our 25 yard line every time.
We have gotten used to fair catching every punt return, so I don't know why kickoff returns would be any different.
Our offensive line play has improved, our defense has improved (taking today's game out of the discussion), but our Special Teams play has not improved in quite some time. I really hope we finally let our Special Teams coach go at the end of this year.
Our offensive line play has improved, our defense has improved (taking today's game out of the discussion), but our Special Teams play has not improved in quite some time. I really hope we finally let our Special Teams coach go at the end of this year.
FWIW, a couple of years ago I did a breakdown of every kickoff return by the Boilers back in 2018. When you factor in penalties during the return, they were something like -25 or -30 yards on kickoffs they tried to return relative to fair catching the ball and taking it at the 25. Yes, there was the occasional return out to the 35 or 40 yard line, but all too often they were instead starting from well inside the 20.
Even with Moore in the return game, they would have been better off simply fair catch every kickoff as opposed to attempting a return.
Even with Moore in the return game, they would have been better off simply fair catch every kickoff as opposed to attempting a return.
That's what many in Austin want right now.
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