Special Teams? Or Bus team?

[painekiller]

Cause the guys who played ST last night need to be on a bus out of town.

Is it me or does our Special Teams still suck a big one? Our returner ran sideways or backwords more than any team I've ever seen.

Plus they can not block anybody, and the tackling was horrendous.

[popanot]

It's not you. They suck big time. Have for years now and I'm surprised Marciano is still around. Like I said in the other thread, I have never seen a ST make so many negative plays on returns and coverages. The closest team I could think of was San Diego last year, but even they had a return game with Sproles.

[Nconroe]

I agree ST both receiving and covering looked not ready to bad last night.

I thought our ST was pretty good like 2-3 years ago , but not last year either.

Hope they can figure this out during next few scrimmages.

It was early preseason and we did win, so , hoping for quick improvement for now.

[WMH]

While I agree, they have sucked in the past, and certainly sucked last night, keep in mind that the returners that acutally played last night are not likely to be the returners come 9/11.

Hell, Demps and Townsel will likely not even be on the roster.

I fully expect to see JJ fielding punts, and Manning to be fielding kickoffs.

Blocking for the returners is another whole ball of wax, but until the final roster is set, I'm not gonna worry about it too much.

Kickoffs will be so much less important this year. I've seen some articles that are expecting the returns to go down as much as 50% from last season.

Punt returns will have more emphasis, so they better get their $hit together come 9/11.

[Arky]

Returning kicks and punts is not rocket surgery. There's some basic fundamentals (I learned mine on the playground at 7 or 8 years old playing with some older guys):

1. Run forward
2. Never stop

If you don't have a lane, make a move but always keep it going forward.

Nowadays, you see these "rules" broken all the time. Guys running sideways/backwards, guys trying to make something happen... Occasionally, you'll see someone succeed at this but it is always the low percentage move. Catching the ball and falling on your face will gain a couple of yards and that is lot better than losing yardage.

As WMH mentioned, most likely JJ and D Manning will handle the return duties in the regular season. Demps and Townsel were just given a tryout. I will say Townsel had one decent punt return.... Demps not so much..

[Fonz the Boss]

Kickoffs likely wont be much of a problem now that kickers will kick from the 35. Just take the touchback ALL the time.