Punt play with gunner completely uncovered

[btcutter]

You guys remember this play in the first half?

Dallas punting and Miami left one of our gunners WIDE OPEN for a good 10 seconds before coming back to cover him. I remember we tried that on the Colts last year and the guy just dropped the ball or else we would have given up a big play.

Does our SP have a play or practice this option? If the gunner is wide open have the punter throw it to him for a completion and 1st down??? Do we practice this? I was yelling at the TV!! Sure we would have botched it but that was an OPPORTUNITY.

BTW I am not trying to nit pick in a win but rather asking if the team should have taken that chance?

 

[nalam]

I saw that too, and in the cowboys zone playback re checked . It would have been opportunate and the punter should have authority to do that ( throw the ball) , it may depend on the game situation too, if it fails what field position we give up ...

 

[EST_1986]

Too creative, its not in the playbook

 

[Reality]

Yeah, remember how well that worked out for the Colts against us last year. Just because he's open doesn't mean it will be a good throw nor does it mean the receiver will catch it.

 

[btcutter]

I saw that too, and in the cowboys zone playback re checked . It would have been opportunate and the punter should have authority to do that ( throw the ball) , it may depend on the game situation too, if it fails what field position we give up ...

we were 2-7. It's like going for it on 4th down.

If we practice this play and Chris Jones and throw and catch...it should be a simple completion.

 

[btcutter]

Yeah, remember how well that worked out for the Colts against us last year. Just because he's open doesn't mean it will be a good throw nor does it mean the receiver will catch it.

Sure....but you have to count on your players executing certain basics of football especially when some of our gunners are WRs.

 

[ActualCowboysFan]

we were 2-7. It's like going for it on 4th down.

If we practice this play and Chris Jones and throw and catch...it should be a simple completion.

When you've got that many ifs you've left the simple behind.

 

[JDSmith]

No way would I take that chance in the shadow of our own goal line. You don't pick up the first and the Dolphins are around our 10 yard line to start the drive.

 

[Mr Cowboy]

Keep in mind that the only reason Jones the punter is here, is because he is a good holder for Bailey's kicks.... it's not for his punting skills, his tackling skills and especially not for his throwing skills.

Garrett's special teams philosophy is to have a punter who is a good holder, punting skills is a plus. For a punt returner, its someone who can gracefully lift his arm in the air to call a fair catch, and who on 9 out of 10 tries will not drop the punt. Punt return yardage is way over rated.

 

[TheDude]

Yeah, remember how well that worked out for the Colts against us last year. Just because he's open doesn't mean it will be a good throw nor does it mean the receiver will catch it.

Not the point. That is where a coach can lay out the "execution" phrase. The coach is supposed to have the team in a position to take advantage of opportunities. Just because 1 out of every 20 times a player will drop it isnt reason to be that risk averse.
uncovered receivers is not the same as some ******** scripted fake punt with Griff whalen taking a snap under center. I

 

[TrailBlazer]

when I was playing I was the personal protector on the punt team. In the situation the OP describes, I would make a call and the long snapper would then snap the ball to me rather than the punter and I would throw it to the receiver. Sadly, this scenario never presented itself.

 

[Proximo]

You guys remember this play in the first half?

Dallas punting and Miami left one of our gunners WIDE OPEN for a good 10 seconds before coming back to cover him. I remember we tried that on the Colts last year and the guy just dropped the ball or else we would have given up a big play.

Does our SP have a play or practice this option? If the gunner is wide open have the punter throw it to him for a completion and 1st down??? Do we practice this? I was yelling at the TV!! Sure we would have botched it but that was an OPPORTUNITY.

BTW I am not trying to nit pick in a win but rather asking if the team should have taken that chance?

The play that you referenced from the Colts game is precisely the reason why that play isn't the greatest idea.

Players are good at what they practice. I don't want our punter throwing game changing passes.

 

[JDSmith]

Not the point. That is where a coach can lay out the "execution" phrase. The coach is supposed to have the team in a position to take advantage of opportunities. Just because 1 out of every 20 times a player will drop it isnt reason to be that risk averse.
uncovered receivers is not the same as some ******** scripted fake punt with Griff whalen taking a snap under center. I

Doing something like that on the opposition's 40 yard line is an opportunity. Doing it on your own 10 is idiocy. It was far too early in the game to think that an additional first down at our own 20 would be a game breaker, but screwing it up and giving the Dolphins the ball at our 10 could be. We get the first we have 80 yards to go, we don't and they have 10 yards to go. Sorry, that's not much of an opportunity. And yes, I know he could have had a huge gain if nobody noticed the pass. He also could have started running down the field and been hit in the back with the ball if he didn't notice the pass.

 

[ActualCowboysFan]

Keep in mind that the only reason Jones the punter is here, is because he is a good holder for Bailey's kicks.... it's not for his punting skills, his tackling skills and especially not for his throwing skills.

Garrett's special teams philosophy is to have a punter who is a good holder, punting skills is a plus. For a punt returner, its someone who can gracefully lift his arm in the air to call a fair catch, and who on 9 out of 10 tries will not drop the punt. Punt return yardage is way over rated.

Chris Jones has actually been very effective this season, but continue agendaing.

 

[cowboys1981]

Yeah, remember how well that worked out for the Colts against us last year. Just because he's open doesn't mean it will be a good throw nor does it mean the receiver will catch it.

So true. Had we gone for it and missed there would be 10 more threads blaming coaches for taking the chance.

 

[Dave_in-NC]

If he could throw he should have started before both our back ups at QB

 

[btcutter]

Guess I didn't remember it was on our own 10. That does change my thinking. Nevertheless, it does make me wonder if our coaches ever prepare our players for these types of situations and have a quick signal into the team to take advantage of these types of situations.

I remember Brady would see his RB wide open in when he flanks out and he would snap the ball before defenders have chance to line up....

 

[Zordon]

Yeah, remember how well that worked out for the Colts against us last year. Just because he's open doesn't mean it will be a good throw nor does it mean the receiver will catch it.

It's Chris Jones. He's good at everything but punting.

 

[noshame]

Rule #1 never give a kicker any additional responsibilities beyond lacing up his shoes

 

[JDSmith]

I just rewatched the play, it was 4th and 4 from our own 16 early second quarter, we were leading 7 - 0. Number 30 from the Dolphins was cheating towards the end of the line, so our gunner was uncovered. But the guy was watching the punter the entire time and actually drifted out to cover the gunner just before the snap. He didn't look over and suddenly realize the guy was uncovered, it was designed that way. He never even looked over, had his eyes on the punter the entire time. So while we could have tried to toss it out there for the first down, it would have been IMO a horrible idea. By the time the ball was snapped that guy would have been running full speed for our gunner.

Edit: And the gunner in question was Byron Jones. I'm not exactly comfortable putting a 4th down conversion on a Jones to Jones pass. In case nobody has noticed, our DBs don't seem to be able to catch passes that hit them directly in the chest or hands.