Is our special teams a liability?

[SgtJoo]

Football Outsiders has us ranked as 27th in Special Teams...

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/dvoa-ratings/2015/week-13-dvoa-ratings

[Carolina Cajun]

Absolutely.  It's truly the only aspect of our game that I think could cost us a superbowl.  Every single game we're due a big return by someone or a blocked kick, and in the playoffs when the margin for error is so thin, thats the kind of stuff that will doom our season.  The only positive that we really have is that Ginn has the potential to get us in decent field position regardless of how shittily protected he is.

[UKPanther94]

Less so than last years hot mess because that was just a farce across the board. This years still worrying though, even more so when you consider we changed the ST coach and brought in supposed special teams only players to fix those issues.

[ashehudson]

I honestly think we are 2-3 block in the back penalties away from being ranked closer to 15th in the league.

[firefox1234]

One blocked FF away from losing my mind smh.....

[KSpan]

42 minutes ago, ashehudson said:

I honestly think we are 2-3 block in the back penalties away from being ranked closer to 15th in the league.

That's essentially the same as saying that the Saints were only 2-3 Brandon Browner penalties away from winning. Good players/units/teams don't make those types of mistakes.

[cookinbrak]

If Gano has trouble getting the ball up enough on extra points, why not back up a couple of yards? A 39 yarder can;t be that much harder than a 37, can it?

[MadHatter]

9 minutes ago, cookinbrak said:

If Gano has trouble getting the ball up enough on extra points, why not back up a couple of yards? A 39 yarder can;t be that much harder than a 37, can it?

Really, really bad idea.

Snapping the ball for FG's is an art that is learned and perfected over many years...that is why you have a guy that does nothing but that.  

Do you realize the likely bad snaps that would happen by changing the distance between the long snapper and the holder?  Much higher chance for disaster than from a kick being blocked.

[Davidson Deac II]

36 minutes ago, cookinbrak said:

If Gano has trouble getting the ball up enough on extra points, why not back up a couple of yards? A 39 yarder can;t be that much harder than a 37, can it?

Its not something they could do in the middle of the season.  Timing is huge when it comes to kicking.  They practice getting the timing down over and over again.  Having the place holder a yard or two back would throw the kickers timing off. 

[PantherPhann89]

Mare is a good kicker but his kicks comes out low and that allows it to be blocked easier. To fix this, we need: 1) We need a new Special Teams Coach that knows Special Teams. One that knows where guys need to be, how they need to block and what adjustments they need to make. 2) A new kicker that's equally as good as Mare or better but his kicks immediately has a higher projectory, which will make it slightly harder to block. Or 3) Different or better blocking personnel. The only problem with this is that it messes with the 53...

[tondi]

All I know is that was more nervous on pretty much every one of our kicks during the game than i was at any time during Cams game winning drive. 

[Paa Langfart]

1 hour ago, Carolina Cajun said:

  The only positive that we really have is that Ginn has the potential to get us in decent field position regardless of how shittily protected he is.

You dont remember playing the cardinals last year in the playoffs ?  TBH I am not too sure about Ginn either after seeing him in that game,  though he is miles ahead of Bersin.

[2jakefansinva]

Special teams have become a problem league wide.....

not sure how to fix it.

[ashehudson]

56 minutes ago, KSpan said:

That's essentially the same as saying that the Saints were only 2-3 Brandon Browner penalties away from winning. Good players/units/teams don't make those types of mistakes.

That's one game. There has been 2 Webb penalties in two different games that cost us a lot of yardage and a TD. Penalties are also very fixable as oppose having terrible ST players.