Flugel Posted August 23, 2015 Report Share Posted August 23, 2015 It feels like I have 2 different opinions on our Special Teams Coordinator (Chris Tabor) every week. Last year, I enjoyed watching our punt and kickoff coverage units. They looked well coached with great discipline. Guys stay in lanes, gunners do their jobs and the unit cages in the return man often. Last year, we started the season with a lot of kickoffs going out of the end for touchbacks. Then I read they worked on Cundiff getting more height on his kickoffs with less distance to allow our coverage unit to take advantage of that and tackle kickoff return guys inside their 20 yard lines pretty consistently. Loved that! On the other hand, we've gone from a very reliable return game in recent past to me feeling like it's unacceptable. The only consistency I've come to expect from this unit is seeing it get flagged. While there's never anything wrong with the ambition to block somebody - I expect a professional to be able to know what is going to work and what is going to be penalized based on where/how he is positioned. If guys are frequently out of position - the film room won't lie. If the same guys continue to make the same mistakes without consequences from the STs Coordinator - it won't/didn't end. If Jimmy Johnson can cut a guy for fumbling; I think we can get a little tougher on professionals repeating the same mistakes that are highly avoidable. Better coaching continues to be needed here or our field position gets FUBAR. I feel like I said the same thing the last 2 years we kept Tabor - he should be able to improve the return game blunders that are highly avoidable. That should have been an important part of his 2014 performance review. Hopefully, it gets prioritized in 2015. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flugel Posted August 23, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 23, 2015 I guess I'll throw my previous concern about the place kicker job into this thread. I've gone from thinking I might have to change shampoos regarding the place-kicking situation pre-camp to pleasantly surprised. I think Coons made a 53 yard FG at the scrimmage in Columbus and he's kicked some FGs in the preseason games as well. We shall see moving forward... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mudfly Posted August 23, 2015 Report Share Posted August 23, 2015 It's only 2 games....I know.....but, right now, Coons is one of the top rated kickers in the league(#8) and has yet to miss a kick.....and has yet to get a KO returned.....so far so good... and Andy Lee?......dude is crushing it and will help this team in so many ways......talk about your inside the twentys..... Poor field position is about to be our opponents nemesis..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zombo Posted August 23, 2015 Report Share Posted August 23, 2015 Andy Lee was one of those moves that make Farmer look brilliant. (If it wasn't for Gilbert/Johnny you have to laud his work so far) AFC North battles often come down to field position and Lee is a good one, Farmer and Tabor recognized that he had plenty of leg left at age 33 and said, let's go get him before he hits the open market. I don't know anything about these two kickers except that they both look excellent in the preseason games so far, which is a small sample size. I just hope we pick the right one. No use keeping two kickers down to the final cut, so this game coming up might be the last live shot for them to impress. I like Tabor, and you guys counting defensive backs and WRs bettter give credence to Marlon Moore and Bademosi, we're not keeping a sixth WR or 5th CB that is not excellent on special teams. Zombo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TexasAg1969 Posted August 23, 2015 Report Share Posted August 23, 2015 I'm still a little miffed we didn't find a way to sign this undrafted free agent. Look what he did last night. 53 yarder as time ran out in the 1st half, 43 yarder to put them up by 10 and then the game winning 47 yarder as time ran out. The last one was right down the middle of the goal posts. Take a look at the video. http://www.chargers.com/news/2015/08/23/josh-lambo-comes-through-clutch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riffer X Posted August 23, 2015 Report Share Posted August 23, 2015 I expect a drastic change in the return games this year for the better, especially with Benji on punts. Kickoffs, not so much. I firmly believe that refs are told to flag kickoff returns as much as possible to further deter teams wanting to return the ball due to injuries. The rule changes a couple of years ago to deter injuries with the kickoffs being closer have a huge effect. The point was not just to move the ball up five yards for more touchbacks, but also to keep guys from gaining as much speed for violent collisions in a shorter distance. Refs have called flags on kickoffs for years, but it has to be at a higher rate now. I think they are purposely gunning for teams to eschew bringing the ball out. Quite frankly, more bad than good can happen when you bring it out in my opinion. Chances of a flag are about 50% (just a guess) and a turnover can also happen. Better off taking it at the twenty as the days of Cribbs are long gone. Making the wedge illegal a few years ago also had a huge effect in shutting down decent returns. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/11/sports/football/11giants.html?_r=0 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flugel Posted August 23, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 23, 2015 I expect a drastic change in the return games this year for the better, especially with Benji on punts. Kickoffs, not so much. I firmly believe that refs are told to flag kickoff returns as much as possible to further deter teams wanting to return the ball due to injuries. The rule changes a couple of years ago to deter injuries with the kickoffs being closer have a huge effect. The point was not just to move the ball up five yards for more touchbacks, but also to keep guys from gaining as much speed for violent collisions in a shorter distance. Refs have called flags on kickoffs for years, but it has to be at a higher rate now. I think they are purposely gunning for teams to eschew bringing the ball out. Quite frankly, more bad than good can happen when you bring it out in my opinion. Chances of a flag are about 50% (just a guess) and a turnover can also happen. Better off taking it at the twenty as the days of Cribbs are long gone. Making the wedge illegal a few years ago also had a huge effect in shutting down decent returns. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/11/sports/football/11giants.html?_r=0 I don't believe refs are conspiring to throw more flags; especially when/if the league is finding it really easy to change rules these days. They can just remove the kickoffs if it's that big of a problem/deal; but they haven't. Hester just returned a punt/kickoff the other day without a flag so I'm not buying that theory. We're getting flagged a lot on things that are avoidable in our return game. That said, when we started putting more air under our kickoffs for hang time daring teams to return the kickoff, we tackled opponents inside the 20 without a lot of penalty flags from our opponents moving that half the distance. When rules are changed to produce more scoring - there's going to be more kickoffs explaining why there's also more penalties. My theory is that doesn't necessarily mean the frequency of flags per kickoff increased more than it used to be. You used to point guys that catch the most passes like Welker and Owens also had the most drops so the proportion of them peer target became more of an important focus. This ain't any different in my opinion. When Cribbs was making the Pro Bowl as our return guy on STs - this type of frequency of flags during his returns could have been an absolute show stopper on the Pro Bowls. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mudfly Posted August 23, 2015 Report Share Posted August 23, 2015 We're getting flagged a lot on things that are avoidable in our return game. this weeks return came back due to a face mask on the opposite side of the field....unrelated to the return....and very avoidable... Frustrating stuff..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tour2ma Posted August 23, 2015 Report Share Posted August 23, 2015 Still too early to fret STs... Nothing comes together more slowly thru TC due to a combination of auditioning UDFAs and saving proven vets.... especially punt/ punt-return teams... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike H Posted August 23, 2015 Report Share Posted August 23, 2015 I want MurderLeg to make it, if for no other reason than to get to call the kicker MurderLeg. Second only to Kickalicious Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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