Mitchell Fineran, Special Teams, Marty Biagi

[FirstDownB]

Terrific game by Mitchell in his debut! Surprised nobody is talking about this. I guess that only happens when there is a negative.

3/3 FG and 3/3 PAT with a long of 48 yards. Put important points on the board to keep OSU at arm's length when the offense struggled to find the end zone. Big bright spot considering the early reports coming out of fall camp.

Really, special teams play as a whole in the OSU game was much improved from last season. What a difference actually having a normal offseason makes. Credit to Coach Biagi and the players.
Only negative was the punt yardage, but even there was a really nice pin down at the 1 yard line and no major gaffes.

I am a believer that solid ST play can easily swing a couple games from the loss column to the win column.

 

[NVboiler]

Need to keep Coach Biagi off of the field. Perhaps he needs a restrainer like one former coach. That cost us a potential 3 points.

 

[FirstDownB]

Need to keep Coach Biagi off of the field. Perhaps he needs a restrainer like one former coach. That cost us a potential 3 points.

Yes, the delay of game and 15 yard penalty hurt. Hopefully just a little game 1 rust. Fortunately we pinned them deep, got the ball back and scored to minimize the damage.

 

[DAG10]

Terrific game by Mitchell in his debut! Surprised nobody is talking about this. I guess that only happens when there is a negative.

3/3 FG and 3/3 PAT with a long of 48 yards. Put important points on the board to keep OSU at arm's length when the offense struggled to find the end zone. Big bright spot considering the early reports coming out of fall camp.

Really, special teams play as a whole in the OSU game was much improved from last season. What a difference actually having a normal offseason makes. Credit to Coach Biagi and the players.
Only negative was the punt yardage, but even there was a really nice pin down at the 1 yard line and no major gaffes.

I am a believer that solid ST play can easily swing a couple games from the loss column to the win column.

For as poor as it has been at times in recent years and was last year, your point is a good one in that it was nice that on Saturday night...it was really solid. I know it has helped swing games from the win column to the loss column in the past...so, it is reasonable to think that just not having the glaring mistakes will keep some games out of the loss column potentially, and, perhaps it will at some point be the difference in a win opposed to a loss.

I think there has to be some sort of threat for a punt return in that aspect of the game...that is still missing. I don't recall Purdue having an opportunity to return a kickoff.

Punt/kick coverage was generally solid...on the play that you referenced, I thought for sure that electing not to catch or down the punt immediately was going to lead to a bad bounce for a touchback, but, fortunately that did not happen.

 

[MilwaukeeBoilerFan]

Terrific game by Mitchell in his debut! Surprised nobody is talking about this. I guess that only happens when there is a negative.

3/3 FG and 3/3 PAT with a long of 48 yards. Put important points on the board to keep OSU at arm's length when the offense struggled to find the end zone. Big bright spot considering the early reports coming out of fall camp.

Really, special teams play as a whole in the OSU game was much improved from last season. What a difference actually having a normal offseason makes. Credit to Coach Biagi and the players.
Only negative was the punt yardage, but even there was a really nice pin down at the 1 yard line and no major gaffes.

I am a believer that solid ST play can easily swing a couple games from the loss column to the win column.

Agree, and I did give S.T. props for a big hand in the win.

Well boys and girls we are 1-0

 

[bhannon]

This was Jack Ansell’s first game as an American punter. I am sure that he will improve as he plays more games.

 

[Inspector100]

This was Jack Ansell’s first game as an American punter. I am sure that he will improve as he plays more games.

I like his results in that he gets the ball up very high, allowing the covering defense to group around the receiver, forcing fair catches. That eliminates problems resulting from busted coverage and potential TD runbacks. Sure, it would be great if he got more distance on the punt, but that could be at the cost of bad coverage. 40 yard average isn't that bad if consistent.

 

[bhannon]

I like his results in that he gets the ball up very high, allowing the covering defense to group around the receiver, forcing fair catches. That eliminates problems resulting from busted coverage and potential TD runbacks. Sure, it would be great if he got more distance on the punt, but that could be at the cost of bad coverage. 40 yard average isn't that bad if consistent.

Agreed. Consistency is really the key. The worst part about the punting last year was so many duds giving up too much field position.

 

[Hausta01]

I like his results in that he gets the ball up very high, allowing the covering defense to group around the receiver, forcing fair catches. That eliminates problems resulting from busted coverage and potential TD runbacks. Sure, it would be great if he got more distance on the punt, but that could be at the cost of bad coverage. 40 yard average isn't that bad if consistent.

40 yard average with 0 return is a great result, IMO

 

[pboiler18]

40 yard average with 0 return is a great result, IMO

Agree. 40 yards net of field position every time is way better than a whole bunch of 50 yard boots and letting that 1 big play through that costs you 6!