OT: The Patriots blocked two punts yesterday, right?

[DarrylS]

There's TWO! I think Shea McClellan retired last year and now we have an Albert.

They are not brothers..

 

[PittPatriot]

I'm still confused on how it's overrated. The odds of us scoring before halftime with the remaining time left went up immensely after that blocked punt. They did their job. Brady made a rare mental mistake and it cost us. That doesn't lower the value of special teams though. The overwhelming majority of the time, that's an automatic 3 points on the board, and a lot of times 7. Special teams gave them that opportunity. It's like saying having a great long snapper and a holder that always places the ball perfectly is overrated because sometimes the kicker misses it anyway. Well, he'd miss more often if those other guys were worse at their job.

Look at it this way: if we blocked 2 punts deep in our opponent's territory in 100 straight games, how often do we lose? You can't overrate their performance by looking at what is certainly a very rare outcome.

I don’t think I’m expressing my point well. You and I are saying the same thing for the most part. Simply said:
How important can special teams be to an outcome of a game (taking away a missed FG/XP) when we completely and overwhelmingly outplayed the other team on ST on both sides and STILL came away without points in gimme situations and ultimately lost the game.

I bet if we kicked the ball out of the end zone on every kick off and started every drive at the 25 yard line, punts were all fair caught, our W-L record would hardly change. I’m my opinion, the whole idea of playing your best players on special teams ( 35-year-old teddy brewski running down the field to cover a kick) is outdated and overrated.

 

[PittPatriot]

They are not brothers..

They definitely look like they have different mothers.

 

[DarrylS]

They definitely look like they have different mothers.

FYI it is Shea McClellin and Albert McClellan.. further proof of your theory.

 

[Crazy Patriot Guy]

I don’t think I’m expressing my point well. You and I are saying the same thing for the most part. Simply said:
How important can special teams be to an outcome of a game (taking away a missed FG/XP) when we completely and overwhelmingly outplayed the other team on ST on both sides and STILL came away without points in gimme situations and ultimately lost the game.

I bet if we kicked the ball out of the end zone on every kick off and started every drive at the 25 yard line, punts were all fair caught, our W-L record would hardly change. I’m my opinion, the whole idea of playing your best players on special teams ( 35-year-old teddy brewski running down the field to cover a kick) is outdated and overrated.

You're still jumping to a conclusion based on one extreme example. We lost a game even after having two blocked punts. But you're questioning the inportance of one unit because of the failure of another.

Back in 2002, the Texans played @ Pittsburgh. The Steelers D held Houston to 47 yards and 3 1st downs....and lost the game 24-6, thanks to 5 turnovers by the Pittsburgh offense, 3 of which that were returned for TDs.

The Steelers held them to one of the lowest outputs in modern NFL history, and still lost by 18. So how important can defense be?

 

[Froob]

I don't care about player of the week awards, but wow he didn't get AFC Special Teams player of the week for this one? That's wild.

Michael Badgley named AFC special teams player of the week