08-31-2006, 11:04 AM
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Second Team and Threatening Starter's Job
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Minuteman country
Posts: 1,094
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Re: Kickoff Special Team
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Originally Posted by arrellbee
A couple things I would be fascinated to have some insight into.
What is Belichick's tradeoff valuation between a kickoff that goes into the end zone versus a longer hang time ? A corollary to that would be whether in preseason he is asking Gostkowski to kick shorter so as to be able to get a chance to evaluate kick coverage better ? Those questions will probably be answered when we get to the regular season and see what Gostkowski does.
The second question is, what is Belichick's tradeoff valuation between a higher odds of tackling a returner inside the 30 yard line versus trying to stop him inside the 20 but with a higher risk of a long return ?
At the moment, my perception (no tape review or stats to add any credibility) is that they are averaging kick returners getting to the 25 yard line. Geeesh. I just went ahead and checked the Washington game and they averaged return run yardage average of 20.7. That would have put the Patriots in the top 5 best compared to last year in terms of limiting kickoff returns.
Washington's average return was to the 25.17 yard line. The best last year (Atlanta) average yardage allowed was to the 25.8, so that would have made Pats number one in limiting opponents kickoff starting position.
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Felger had interesting comments on this same topic of length versus hang-time:
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Boston Herald:
http://patriots.bostonherald.com/pat...82&format=text
" While rookie kicker Stephen Gostkowski made a nice tackle on a second-quarter return, his kickoffs were noticeably short. Gostkowski had eight kickoffs and not one reached the end zone. The closest he got was the 2-yard line. The rest landed between the 4 and 10.
Belichick said a kickoff that reaches the end zone losses effectiveness if it doesn’t have the proper hang time. For example, a kick that has two-tenths of a second more hang time is better off coming down on the 2 than a kick that goes to the goal line and doesn’t have that hang time.
As a result, Gostkowski may not have graded out as poorly as it looked to the naked eye. "
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This also may have been one of the factors in the tradeoff of keeping Gostkowski versus Gramatica. Didn't see any media comments and unless we used our own stop watch, it wouldn't have been noticeable in preseason kickoffs by the two. |
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