Will this ever, ever change? The team has multiple problems right now, but this is the one continuing problem that just makes me want to sick up. How long has it been since we have had solid special teams play?

SSDD!!!!!!!!!!!!

Appsolutely wrote:Will this ever, ever change? The team has multiple problems right now, but this is the one continuing problem that just makes me want to sick up. How long has it been since we have had solid special teams play?

Since Sparky left for Columbia.

Agreed, there is absolutely no excuse for any team having kick coverage this bad. We should just resurrect the same thread every year; I wonder how long it would be by now...

97grad wrote:Agreed, there is absolutely no excuse for any team having kick coverage this bad. We should just resurrect the same thread every year; I wonder how long it would be by now...

I have lost count on the number of TDs scored on our not-so-special teams over the last few years. It's obvious that very little attention and effort is being spent in this area. Year after year! Totally unacceptable!!!

WataugaMan wrote:

97grad wrote:Agreed, there is absolutely no excuse for any team having kick coverage this bad. We should just resurrect the same thread every year; I wonder how long it would be by now...

I have lost count on the number of TDs scored on our not-so-special teams over the last few years. It's obvious that very little attention and effort is being spent in this area. Year after year! Totally unacceptable!!!

Our punter seems to be pretty good...when he doesn't get it blocked or deflected off of our blocker's fannies...

Appsolutely wrote:

WataugaMan wrote:

97grad wrote:Agreed, there is absolutely no excuse for any team having kick coverage this bad. We should just resurrect the same thread every year; I wonder how long it would be by now...

I have lost count on the number of TDs scored on our not-so-special teams over the last few years. It's obvious that very little attention and effort is being spent in this area. Year after year! Totally unacceptable!!!

Our punter seems to be pretty good...when he doesn't get it blocked or deflected off of our blocker's fannies...

Wish our kicker could get the kickoffs into the end zone more, but, at least he is the only one that stays in his lane.

Our guys stayed in their lanes toooooo long. They ran to the line where the ball carrier had the ball instead of curving into the ball carrier. There was a hole a Mack Truck could drive through.
It should be rare to score a TD on a kickoff or punt return, but it happens to us each year it seems.

Extremely poor offensive production aside, not-so-special teams have played a major role in two out of our last three consecutive losses.

It's not just the kicking game. It looked like Washington was afraid to catch the ball for a return. He just kept letting it go by him so the Aggies could down it inside the 5.....pitiful!

Hipockets wrote:It's not just the kicking game. It looked like Washington was afraid to catch the ball for a return. He just kept letting it go by him so the Aggies could down it inside the 5.....pitiful!

I don't know if he was afraid or told to stay out of the way.

On the positive note, this is one of the easiest parts of the game to fix (not saying catching a kicked ball is easy, I know it's not). We just have to identify who can make a catch and let him do it.

Hipockets wrote:It's not just the kicking game. It looked like Washington was afraid to catch the ball for a return. He just kept letting it go by him so the Aggies could down it inside the 5.....pitiful!

You NEVER field a punt inside the 10. As for the others, I can just hear the outcry now had Tony tried to field one of those bouncing balls inside the 10 that takes a bad hop, hits him and they recover it near our goal.

Kgfish wrote:

Hipockets wrote:It's not just the kicking game. It looked like Washington was afraid to catch the ball for a return. He just kept letting it go by him so the Aggies could down it inside the 5.....pitiful!

You NEVER field a punt inside the 10. As for the others, I can just hear the outcry now had Tony tried to field one of those bouncing balls inside the 10 that takes a bad hop, hits him and they recover it near our goal.

I see your point but I would have blamed him less for failing than not trying at all. On the other hand if we had had pressure on the kicker it may have been a different story.

Hipockets wrote:

Kgfish wrote:

Hipockets wrote:It's not just the kicking game. It looked like Washington was afraid to catch the ball for a return. He just kept letting it go by him so the Aggies could down it inside the 5.....pitiful!

You NEVER field a punt inside the 10. As for the others, I can just hear the outcry now had Tony tried to field one of those bouncing balls inside the 10 that takes a bad hop, hits him and they recover it near our goal.

I see your point but I would have blamed him less for failing than not trying at all. On the other hand if we had had pressure on the kicker it may have been a different story.

Not trying at all would be ok, if we didn't have to start 5 drives inside the 10 (especially down by 18).
But most important is that the kicking team shouldn't never be able to take for granted that a return isn't coming. Even "old school' punters knew how to kick if a return was off the table.

We made some mistakes for sure which may have cost us the game, but we killed them yardage-wise. Our problems were that we started @ 1,1,2,5,8,12, I don't think anyone would have blamed Washington for playing the cards he was given and try to bring a few of those out. Not blaming him, most likely he was doing what he was told. I just think that people thought there should be more "Always Attack" or "Make something happen" on returns.

Several of those he should have at least attempted to move up and fair catch.