{Great Read} - BB & Special Teams: A Love Story

[long distance]

You might enjoy this nice bye read (esp. after importance and efficiency of NE STs was on big display last Sunday):

Bill Belichick and special teams: a love story


quotes:

Want to know about injuries, or break down a specific offensive call that broke the game wide open? Ha! Good luck. But if you’re wondering about the history of left-footed punters, better make sure you brought extra batteries for your recorder.​

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“There’s nothing more important—this might sound stupid but there’s nothing more important for a punter than hands because without good hands, handling the ball and being able to place and drop the ball properly on your foot, no matter how strong your leg is, you’re not going to be able to punt consistently. I don’t think, when you’re evaluating a punter, one thing you don’t want really is a punter that doesn’t have good hands. It’s just hard to punt the ball consistently—no matter how strong the guy's leg is—if he’s not a smooth ball handler.”​

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“[The Rams] have a lot of very good players, a lot of explosive players in all three phases of the game. Let’s start with the kicking game; I mean [Johnny] Hekker is a tremendous weapon. This guy looks like as good a player as I’ve ever seen at that position. He’s a tremendous weapon in his ability to punt the ball, punt it inside the 20, directional kick it, involved in fakes, can throw, can run, very athletic.”​

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This one from 10 yrs ago . Remember the re-kick from Sunday..

“I think when you punt from inside the 5 with the punter a little bit closer, a lot of time, psychologically, the protection is thinking, I have to stay in longer, we don’t have as much room to punt, it is not our normal punting depth from the center to the punter. And also when you make a team re-kick it, guys aren’t as fresh and you don’t get quite the same energy in the coverage sometimes on that second time around.”​

 

[seven]

This is a good read. Basically collected remarks by BB on special teams.

Bits I liked:

Big shoutout to Steve DeOssie in there. Changed the game by long snapping, and blocking.


hidden yards: We track all those hidden yardage... fielding a punt and fair catching a punt that's say 37 yards versus not catching it and it rolls another 13 yards


... huge stat in the kicking game is missed field goals...almost equivalent to a turnover. Not only do you get the ball, but you get it plus seven yards.


There’s nothing more important—this might sound stupid but there’s nothing more important for a punter than hands.



1986 NFC championship game against the Redskins. It was a windy day in Giants Stadium. We’ve had many of those and we won the toss and Coach [Bill] Parcells elected to take the wind, which wasn’t very common.

That decision, the initial points and the way that the game started really was a huge part of what was reflected in a huge degree to that decision that Bill made. That was a good lesson for me to learn in my career. It was a great decision by Coach Parcells.”

 

[bbobbo]

hmmm...somebody trying to kiss up to coach?

 

[Bill Lee]

Yep we see the big turning point of the Pats vs Jete was the safety we got and the big turning point of the DAL-WAS game was the blocked FG returned for a TD. It's funny how people don't understand how important special teams are.

 

[TennisBallHead]

Someone did a study from 2002-2013 (a 29,000+ punt sample size), and left footed punters cause muffs at 3.24 percent, versus righties at 2.34.

Factoring in the returning team recovering their own muffs, basically keeping left-footed scrubs like Allen and Ken Walter help the Patriots get one more turnover EVERY FIVE YEARS.

I don't think it's worth it.

 

[long distance]

Great week 8 ST extravaganza breakdown by BB here:

Belichick Breakdown: Top Plays from Week 8 vs. Los Angeles Chargers

 

[patfanken]

So what has BB been trying to do every game for the last 40 years? Getting an edge. So in a game where the overall physical talent is essentially the same, and every coach is knowledgeable and smart. It gets harder and harder to find those "edges" that help you win games.

BB found out early that one of the easiest areas to get a slight advantage was in ST's, If you are really good at it, it can effect games. like we saw vs LAC. It is also a place for a coach to develop his leadership skills since he has to deal with the entire roster in filling those "66" positions, as opposed to say the OC or DC who are dealing with only one side of thee ball. Like the HC, the ST coach needs the respect of the entire team to do his job.

I'm really happy to find this, and thanks for sharing it. There have been over 3000 ST's references by BB over his years here. By highlighting just about 10 of them, the author has enhanced our knowledge of the game, by understanding the complexities and myriad details of a part of the game most fans don't know much about. (though because of BB, Pats fans might know more than most)