Percy Harvin's dumb luck

[Tunescribe]

I didn't see or hear any discussion about this because of how it turned out, but consider: Harvin committed a cardinal sin letting that second-half kickoff hit the turf. Luckily it bounced right to him but just think if it had gone sideways and Denver did a scoop-and-score. Instead of 29-0 it's 22-7 and possibly a different game.

 

[dales804]

Those bounces are part of the game. How many fumbles did the Giants have between SB42 and 46? Four? And the Patriots recovered none of them. And the one time they did get one, Ninko got called for a NI to negate it.

I don't know why DEN didn't just have Prater kick it for a touchback. Did I hear right that that was the first time DEN had to actually play a kickoff return in the post season?

 

[Tunescribe]

Those bounces are part of the game. How many fumbles did the Giants have between SB42 and 46? Four? And the Patriots recovered none of them. And the one time they did get one, Ninko got called for a NI to negate it.

I don't know why DEN didn't just have Prater kick it for a touchback. Did I hear right that that was the first time DEN had to actually play a kickoff return in the post season?

I don't know. My point is that Harvin never should've let the ball hit the turf -- that's KR rule No. 1.

 

[signbabybrady]

As soon as that ball left Praters foot I knew bad things for Denver were coming. What the hell were they thinking. Its not easy to kick away from returners on a kick off because you either give up a large chunk when an upman gets it or you kick it out of bounds. This was the worst case scenario as they didn't even avoid the returner. They in essence left themselves with less time to cover and shed blocks.

Then the bounce which IMO has an odd way of messing up coverage too I think coverage guys see it and even if for just a split second they are thinking about getting the ball rather than making the tackle. It doesnt always happen but decent returns often follow quirky bounces enough so that I would think there is some sort of cause and effect.


With the new rules and a more than good chance at a touch back I dont what the hell they were thinking.

 

[voluntarysaftey]

That was a really good kick. It was actually a good call by the coach and good execution by the kicker. Just horrible execution by the rest of the special teams. Denver should've tackled him at the spot of the bounce -- the bounce and the floating kick delayed Harvin's return by a couple of seconds. Denver's special teams just didn't show up -- on that play they were all to Harvin's left except for a couple of players and left the middle wide open for him to run straight thru.

 

[Brady_to_Moss]

good kick...but harvin is a play maker...even if it's a tough play..you have to let him touch it. So electric and it was basically his first game back. love him as a player

 

[Wheelman]

Those bounces are part of the game. How many fumbles did the Giants have between SB42 and 46? Four? And the Patriots recovered none of them. And the one time they did get one, Ninko got called for a NI to negate it.

I don't know why DEN didn't just have Prater kick it for a touchback. Did I hear right that that was the first time DEN had to actually play a kickoff return in the post season?

Contrary to what the media and Broncos fans think, Prater doesn't have that strong of a leg to get touchbacks. It's all Mile high. When he was playing away from Mile high his touchback percentage wasn't very good compared to say Gostkowski who was like top 3 in touchbacks I believe? Some Broncos fans dismissed that stat saying who cares about touchbacks? Well I bet they wished Prater could have kicked a touchback right there...

 

[dales804]

Contrary to what the media and Broncos fans think, Prater doesn't have that strong of a leg to get touchbacks. It's all Mile high. When he was playing away from Mile high his touchback percentage wasn't very good compared to say Gostkowski who was like top 3 in touchbacks I believe? Some Broncos fans dismissed that stat saying who cares about touchbacks? Well I bet they wished Prater could have kicked a touchback right there...

Prater had touchback on 58% of his kickoffs away from home (32/55). Obviously it was higher at home. Gostowski was at about 65% this year.

I believe Prater was told to intentionally kick that ball like that (higher kickoff, more time for coverage team to get downfield). Regardless, the play didn't cost DEN the game but it did basically cement that it was over.

 

[Wheelman]

I definitely agree he was told to kick it like that.

 

[PatriotSeven]

Maybe, but again, what is even more likely to have happened, based on how Seattle's D played this game, is...not much different....Denver gets the ball and might have come away with 3 points.

I mean we're talking about a team up 43-8, with less than 4 minutes to play that still pushed the Donkey's back for 4-5 yard losses on running plays when the game was already over and the Donkeys were just begging them to help them end it.

I think if Denver would have recovered that...it just would have pissed Seattle's D off.