Focus on Special Teams

[rookBoston]

With roster spots at a premium, it's pretty clear that ST will be the deciding factor for many players, like Bolden, Barrett, Ihedigbo, Ebner, Koutouvides, Rivera, Brown, Cole and Scott. I did a close viewing of the Saints game to see who our starting STers were, and who showed up.

Kickoff... from right to left
32 McCourty
11 Edelman
59 Carpenter
43 Ebner
44 Ihedigbo
3 Gostkowski (K)
31 Brown
18 Slater
52 Fletcher
38 Bolden
24 Arrington

Have to be able run, beat the blocks and make the tackle
- Almost always a touchback, anyway.

Kickoff Return

39 Woodhead (KR)
34 Vereen (FB)
62 Wendell (lead blocker)
50 Ninkovich (lead blocker)
59 Carpenter
90 Koutouvides
27 Wilson
87 Gronkowski
38 Bolden
44 Ihedigbo
43 Ebner

Get a hat on a hat and sustain your block. Bigger bodies in this unit, less speed.
- Koutouvides whiffed his man. Ebner picked him up, but got pushed back and was unable to sustain the block. That guy made the tackle on Woodhead. We should recruit that guy.
- Wendell looked completely lost. He the only one not moving a million miles an hour.

Punt

14 Mesko (P)
30 Barrett (Gunner)
18 Slater (Gunner)

on the line...
25 Chung (HB)
34 Vereen (TE)
90 Koutouvides (OT)
45 Hightower (OG)
48 Aiken (LS)
52 Fletcher* (OG)
47 Rivera (OT)
44 Ihedigbo (TE)

* after the injury Fletcher was replaced by 99 Scott

Protect against the rush until the ball is off, then get downfield to make the tackle
- I thought Vereen struggled against the edge rusher. On the third punt, his man got past him and (luckily?) got flagged for running into Mesko
-I was a little surprised to see Aiken consistently show up downfield for the gang tackle. He was in more plays than Hightower or Koutouvides.

Punt Return

11 Edelman (PR)

on the line...right to left
30 Barrett (DE)
52 Fletcher* (DT)
96 Cunningham (DT)
44 Ihedigbo (LB)
90 Koutouvides (DT)
18 Slater (DE)

over the gunners...
32 McCourty
23 Cole
24 Arrington
31 Brown

* after the injury, Fletcher was replaced by 47 Rivera

Rush the punter. Protect against the fake. Drop back and try to block for the return man.
- First punt return, Cole was overaggressive and got flagged for block in the back.
- btw, watching PR blocking in slow motion is a real trip. It's complete chaos with bodies flying in all directions.

Roster summary

Four units: 44 Ihedigbo
Three units: 18 Slater, 52 Fletcher, 90 Koutouvides
Two units: 11 Edelman, 24 Arrington, 30 Barrett, 31 Brown, 32 McCourty, 34 Vereen, 38 Bolden, 39 Woodhead, 43 Ebner, 47 Rivera, 59 Carpenter
One unit: 3 Gostkowski, 14 Mesko, 23 Cole, 25 Chung, 27 Wilson, 45 Hightower, 48 Aiken, 50 Ninkovich, 62 Wendell, 87 Gronkowski, 96 Cunningham, 99 Scott

Showed me something:
- Ihedigbo is a big part of ST. I hadn't credited him for it.
- Fletcher. Big loss to the kicking game.
- Aiken getting downfield. I was impressed.
- Gronkowski had a solid block on kickoff return.
- Slater. Always around the ball on coverage. Makes Barrett, who's less consistent, look bad on the other side.
- Ebner. Gets his hat in there.
- Scott came in for Fletcher with the punt unit, and did a nice job keeping the runner in front of him for a gang tackle.

Didn't see anything special:
- Hightower. Rarely in the play.
- Cole. Isn't he supposed to stand out?
- Koutouvides is on three units. But he never really influenced the play, with a number of opportunities. He did run one guy out of bounds :/ Maybe it was a bad game, but I'd love to see Tarp and Rivera get more opportunities.
- Bolden. No visible impact.
- Vereen. Seemed at constant risk of giving up the outside rush in the punting unit.

 

[doesntmatter1]

Nice job and pretty detailed. I didn't watch special teams in detail the way you did but late in the game, cole and williams stood out as gunners and either one of them could be a surprise addition to the 53 man squad.

 

[WinstonSmith]

Talk about serendipitous, I was curious if my man Barrett could become the Slater of the DB’s and was looking for a write-up regarding the Pats special teams play for their preseason game; I logged into the forum to see what I could find and your thread basically auto loaded (I must have had some clicks queued up somehow and the web gods were kind to me).

Great break down, and thank you for taking the time to do this. I thought that Barrett had an outside shot at making the team on the strength of his special teams play but it looks like he will need to have a better showing in the next few preseason games to have any chance.

 

[rookBoston]

Nice job and pretty detailed. I didn't watch special teams in detail the way you did but late in the game, cole and williams stood out as gunners and either one of them could be a surprise addition to the 53 man squad.

In the second half, BB had totally different ST units out there. I saw Lavarais, Cole and a handful of scrubs in on coverage.

But by then the TV coverage was completely not interested in the game (and certainly not the ST units), so there wasn't a lot of video input to parse out the players who were actually on the field. I saw enough to realize that those guys are deep on the depth chart.

I'll be interested to compare the Saints starting ST roster with the Eagles game tonight.