Special Teams is a Problem

[adam]

So I think we can safely say that some of the preseason can be correlated to the regular season.

Special Teams was an issue in the preseason, and it was also in Week 1.

On punts, MIN's PR Price averaged 17.0 on his returns (which is crazy). Duvernay averaged 9.3. The Bears lost 31 net yards in punt coverage.

Wright was 7-333 on punts averaging 47.6. Taylor was 6-266 for only 44.3 per punt. So the Bears lost another 20 net yards in just punts. That is 51 lost yards without the offense or defense on the field, which basically equates to at least 3 pts. I don't know how a punter loses 10 yards off his punts from college to the pros.

Then our glorious Captain Kicker got to watch Reichard go 2/2 on FGs and hit a 59-yarder while Santos missed a 50-yarder going the same way and couldn't kick the ball out of the end zone to save his life. He also barely made his lone FG.

All in all, not good. At some point will Hightower ever be held accountable?

 

[Mongo3451]

Carmen and Jurko were blowing major crap to Johnson for not having Santos kick the ball the ball out of bounds due to him not being able to kick it out the back.

[adam]

17 minutes ago, Mongo3451 said:

Carmen and Jurko were blowing major crap to Johnson for not having Santos kick the ball the ball out of bounds due to him not being able to kick it out the back.

From what I have seen online, since it would be a penalty, MIN could just decline and make him rekick.

So the only other option was to go for an onside kick and try to tackle them within 3 seconds, which is not a guarantee.

[Mongo3451]

54 minutes ago, adam said:

From what I have seen online, since it would be a penalty, MIN could just decline and make him rekick.

I'm reading that it's automatically placed on the 40.

[adam]

1 hour ago, Mongo3451 said:

I'm reading that it's automatically placed on the 40.

Everything I am reading is that it is considered a penalty.

Here is a snippet from an article talking about it comparing it to a touchback:

"By contrast, a kick that goes out of bounds would be flagged as an illegal procedure penalty, and the ball would come out to the 40-yard line, a difference of five yards."

 

So if it was deemed a penalty, then it would've been pointless to do that as MIN could just decline and ask to rekick. The best option was probably the onside, but then with MIN's kicker they are almost already in FG range with a normal recovery.

[Stinger226]

4 hours ago, adam said:

So I think we can safely say that some of the preseason can be correlated to the regular season.

Special Teams was an issue in the preseason, and it was also in Week 1.

On punts, MIN's PR Price averaged 17.0 on his returns (which is crazy). Duvernay averaged 9.3. The Bears lost 31 net yards in punt coverage.

Wright was 7-333 on punts averaging 47.6. Taylor was 6-266 for only 44.3 per punt. So the Bears lost another 20 net yards in just punts. That is 51 lost yards without the offense or defense on the field, which basically equates to at least 3 pts. I don't know how a punter loses 10 yards off his punts from college to the pros.

Then our glorious Captain Kicker got to watch Reichard go 2/2 on FGs and hit a 59-yarder while Santos missed a 50-yarder going the same way and couldn't kick the ball out of the end zone to save his life. He also barely made his lone FG.

All in all, not good. At some point will Hightower ever be held accountable?

 

Yes , we also had a punt partial blocked. I read where Santos was told to kick the ball out of bounds. It would give them the ball at the 40 but would have given us another clock stop for the 2 minute warning. Now with several backups starting did that pull them off of the ST plays? We missed the tackling ability of TJ Edwards and Kyler Gordon. 

[DABEARSDABOMB]

1 minute ago, Stinger226 said:

Yes , we also had a punt partial blocked. I read where Santos was told to kick the ball out of bounds. It would give them the ball at the 40 but would have given us another clock stop for the 2 minute warning. Now with several backups starting did that pull them off of the ST plays? We missed the tackling ability of TJ Edwards and Kyler Gordon. 

The missed field goal also gave Vikings real good field position. 

[Stinger226]

Several things are fixable but If it continues , I dont think BJ keeps Hightower around. 

[adam]

8 minutes ago, DABEARSDABOMB said:

The missed field goal also gave Vikings real good field position. 

Good point, more hollow yards. 

[Mongo3451]

49 minutes ago, Stinger226 said:

I read where Santos was told to kick the ball out of bounds.

Nope.  He was directly told to kick it out the back of the end zone.  Straight from Ben Johnson's press conference.

[AZ54]

5 minutes ago, Mongo3451 said:

Nope.  He was directly told to kick it out the back of the end zone.  Straight from Ben Johnson's press conference.

That is correct.   

[Mongo3451]

1 hour ago, adam said:

So if it was deemed a penalty, then it would've been pointless to do that as MIN could just decline and ask to rekick.

That's not an option.  If we lock the ball out of bounds and they decline.  The ball would be spotted where it went out of bounds.

• Kicks Out of Bounds:If a kick goes out of bounds before being touched by a player, the penalty is 25 yards past the spot of the kick, or the ball is placed at the spot it left the field of play, whichever is more advantageous to the receiving team.