New punting formation

[SaltwaterServr]

I was reading Eatman's article out front on DC.com. Seems the Coach Joe D. has made some punting changes.

First, he's moved McBriar up in the formation from 15 yards back to 13.5 yards behind center. That's made Matt shorten his steps to get the kick away.

The second thing is that he's having Matt kick HIGHER and cutting the distance off the back end.

Now I can see the moving up in the pocket, so to speak. If your line does what it does well in holding the point of attack from the defense you should be good. There is a physics part to this as well. I'll see if I can illustrate it here.

________________________________________________*
______________________T G C G T
_________________ST_____________ST
_____________ST2__________________ST2




______________________Punter

Okay, this is pretty much what an offensive line looks like on punts. ST being whatever special teams players Coach Joe wants to use as his additional blocking/protection.

The offensive line and protection creates an arc of protection for the punter. Any defensive player wanting to make a play on the ball must come by/though the ST2 personnel on the shortest line possible to get to the point directly in front of the punter to get a play on the ball.

If the defensive player gets held up, he makes no play. If the defensive player takes a bad angle, he either ends up behind the punter or runs into him. Either way, no play on the ball.


______________________T G C G T
_________________ST_____________ST
_____________ST2__________________ST2



______________________Punter

Now the same formation, but move the punter up. The angle the defensive player has now changed, it is much shallower and I think that's the key Coach Joe is bringing forth. The formation of the line in front of the punter has not changed.

The defensive player still needs to reach the point in front of the punter to block the kick. In order to do that however, he must line up WIDER from the LOS to get past the ST2 blocker on our offensive formation.

Try this to illustrate the point I'm making. Scroll up to the top formation and put a piece of paper, business card, whatever on the screen as a straight edge. Put one corner over the "t" in punter and then move the line until it comes up on the asterisk out there by itself. That would be the angle the defensive player needs to take to get to the punter from the line of scrimmage without engaging the ST2 player.

Keep the straight edge in the same place with that angle. Now scroll down to the second diagram. Oh, snap, the defensive player now runs smack into ST2. To adjust the angle he needs to get to the punter he has to line up wider, and farther, from the punter.

Now he can line up at the same place he did before of course, and he probably will. Now however, he has to loop to get to the punter rather than running a straight line. He takes more steps to get to a point farther inside the arc of protection and therefore increases the chances of running into the punter as a by product while in the same effort allowing the punter extra time to get away the kick.

The second point I think about kicking higher and shorter is valid as well, to a point. First a higher angle allows you to move the punter up in that arc of protection without seriously increasing your chance at a blocked punt. Secondarily the shorter kick, albiet not much shorter, allows better coverage downfield.

I'm for certain we all saw on multiple occassions McBriar outkicking his coverages and thereby setting up a long return. The trick here that Coach Joe might be pulling on us is to shave 5-7 yards off in total distance kicked, but in reality saving us 10-14 yards in return yards against us. In theory, we net additional yardage by increased fair catches and more time for our coverage guys to get downfield.

 

[yentl911]

Good post. I would hope our major concern, other than getting good kick coverage, is having a punt protection team that can go through the season without getting our punter killed.

We had some major lapses in our kicking game last season that had some obvious adverse effects.

I am hoping, and thinking, that our ST''s will be much improved this season.

 

[Coakleys Dad]

With this much thought and emphisis on special teams they cant help but be better and being they caused us at least 2 wins a season this is great news. Thanks for the informative post.

 

[Hostile]

You forgot one player, the up man. Count your formation. That's 10. You need 11.

Nice job.

 

[Doomsday101]

You forgot one player, the up man. Count your formation. That's 10. You need 11.

Nice job.

Glad you picked that up. I was wondering about the up man thinking about pressure up the middle that could lead to a block punt

 

[NorthTexan95]

Those are illegal formations. Both have only 5 men on the line but you're required to have seven.

 

[Hostile]

Those are illegal formations. Both have only 5 men on the line but you're required to have seven.

Good catch.

The first 2 wings outside usually play off the LOS. The 2nd two wings that he shows here would most likely be out wide as gunners and on the LOS.

For this formation to not get a flag there would have to be 7 across the LOS.

 

[Yeagermeister]

As long as we don't allow anymore blocked punts I don't care how they lineup.

 

[Doomsday101]

I would not mind seeing us get a few block punts of our own. Given the rules of running into or roughing the kicker I would be more than willing to take some chances when opponents are faced with 4th and more than 5 yards to go after a punt.

 

[Yakuza Rich]

Great post.

I think with McBriar now punting them higher but shorter, it may be a bit of DeCamillis' preference. McBriar was kicking them higher and shorter in '05 (IIRC), but they pretty much had him boom 'em deep and just have Jacques Reeves chase it down. If Reeves couldn't make the tackle, that was okay because he would usually make the returner avoid him and by then the rest of the coverage would be downfield to make the tackle.

Problem is now we don't have a Jacques Reeves on special teams, so the adjustment makes sense.




YAKUZA

 

[Yakuza Rich]

I would not mind seeing us get a few block punts of our own. Given the rules of running into or roughing the kicker I would be more than willing to take some chances when opponents are faced with 4th and more than 5 yards to go after a punt.

Running into the kicker is fine. Roughing the kicker is a 15 yard penalty and automatic first down. The problem I see with it is if you miss the block and hit the punter, it seems that you're almost guaranteed to see a roughing the kicker call and that destroys momentum, not to mention gives up a first down.

I wish there was a YouTube video of one time where Keith Davis got called for roughing the kicker and it was a completely hideous call.




YAKUZA

 

[Doomsday101]

Running into the kicker is fine. Roughing the kicker is a 15 yard penalty and automatic first down. The problem I see with it is if you miss the block and hit the punter, it seems that you're almost guaranteed to see a roughing the kicker call and that destroys momentum, not to mention gives up a first down.

I wish there was a YouTube video of one time where Keith Davis got called for roughing the kicker and it was a completely hideous call.




YAKUZA

I disagree very seldom is roughing the kicker ever called 9 out of 10 will be running into the kicker. When I see teams punting from their 45 I know darn well the chances of him pinning us back inside the 10 is a lot greater than getting called for roughing.

 

[sonnyboy]

Did anyone see that awesome fake punt the Titans ran last night?

That was as cleaver a trick play as I'd ever seen. Can't imagine it wouldn't have worked in a real game.

I just don't understand why they would waste it in a preseason game.

Now that everyone's seen it, you can probably not count on using it again.

 

[Meat-O-Rama]

Coach Joe is just trying to give him a better chance at hitting the video board.

 

[fortdick]

Did anyone see that awesome fake punt the Titans ran last night?

That was as cleaver a trick play as I'd ever seen. Can't imagine it wouldn't have worked in a real game.

I just don't understand why they would waste it in a preseason game.

Now that everyone's seen it, you can probably not count on using it again.

That's the point. By showing it now, other teams will have to plan for throughout the season. They will probably never run it again.

Kinda like what I hope Garrett does with the Razorback. Run it once in preseason to show we can do it, then toss that page of the playbook in the shredder.

 

[Doomsday101]

That's the point. By showing it now, other teams will have to plan for throughout the season. They will probably never run it again.

Kinda like what I hope Garrett does with the Razorback. Run it once in preseason to show we can do it, then toss that page of the playbook in the shredder.

Even Fisher said they he would not do it Craig Hentrich the starting punter

 

[This is Our Year]

Nice Post! Love the Joe D hire, we lost some good coaches a few years ago and this guy seems like he is bringing a solid element to our club with his ST coaching.

 

[billknows]

Nice Post! Love the Joe D hire, we lost some good coaches a few years ago and this guy seems like he is bringing a solid element to our club with his ST coaching.

Thanks salt, I think our new coach Joe C is making a big difference in expertise and attitude on speacial teams,in fact an impact on our total team.

I look at it this way.

If we make 4-6 more BIG plays a year on speacial teams,it lifts expectations and compitition for our Defensive players to make BIG game changing plays. And thats good.

Also it gives our team a trinity so to speak, a whole third equall part that can inspire and raise compitition. Now instead of Offense feeding on Defense and Defense feeding on the Offense. They both have a more equall part to gain enthusisim and compition from, and keeps them from feeding on themselves only.

If speacial teams can get more players involved on big game changing plays, Team UNITY and CONFIDENCE will be much improved ... and thats a very good thing...

 

[masomenos]

But if they're telling McBriar to punt higher, won't he hit the video screen hanging above the field????

 

[casmith07]

speaking of the video screen, does anyone know if it's fixed, or is it suspended along cables or something that could be "tightened" to move it up?