Special Teams Problem: Attitude, Personnel, or Execution?

[PhillyB]

Obviously all is not well in Danny Crossmanville. The Panthers special teams have surrendered countless yards and several touchdowns so far this season, just six weeks in... huge returns, punt returns for touchdowns, kick returns for touchdowns, blocked punts, blocked field goals, muffed punts... everything but fumbling on QB kneels (I apologize in advance if I just jinxed us. )

So what's the problem? It can only be a combination of any of three things:

1) Attitude. Every time you watch special teams make a play, it's because of attitude. If you're going to rush full speed at a group of guys coming back at you at the same velocity, the only advantage you're going to have is either mass (we'll get to mass in a second) or attitude. You have to want to put that clown in the dirt, you have to make that returner poo his pants and wave for the fair catch a half a second after the ball is in the air.

Does this team possess that attitude? If they don't, then whose fault is it? Is it Danny Crossman's? Coaching is all about inspiring the right attitude in your players, so you could argue that it rests squarely on his shoulders. But a football player is a football player... if you're not motivated enough to make a play on the field, you've got an internal problem to root out. If that's the case, it may be...

2) Personnel. Maybe we just don't have the right guys for the job. If this is the case, you could divide the problem guys into physical and mental categories... they either don't have the size or agility - physical skills - to contribute (see above: mass) or they don't possess the mental capability to be in the right place at the right time.

(To Crossman's credit, we lost a number of very solid special-teamers in the offseason... we lost Mark Jones as a returner (he was the very definition of solid) and Nick Goings, Karl Hankton if I'm not mistaken, and probably a couple others I've failed to mention. [it takes a while to build cohesiveness on a team of new guys, and credit should be given to Crossman if things come together.])

Lastly,

3) Execution. If the special-teamers have all the right guys in place, and they're out there with a smashmouth mentality, than is there something wrong with the execution? Process of elimination would suggest there has to be. Is the lack of execution, then, a flaw in scheming? If players are playing lights out with football attitude, and we're still getting pounded, then it's got to be scheme, and, thusly, a coaching problem.

So which is it? Is it attitude? Is it personnel? Is it execution? Is it a combination of any of the three? Is Crossman alone to blame? What say ye?

[CatMan72]

It's a combo of personnel/execution. Bad special teams play is always a sign of a lack of depth. Leading up to last weeks game, Baker had been compounding the problem by out-kicking the coverage - last week he seemed to be getting more hang time on the ball and it paid off.

[pantherfan49]

It is Crossman, plain and simple. The team has brought in special teamer after special teamer during Crossman's tenure, and to no avail. The Panthers are deep with good players at the positions that count for special teams- LB, TE, CB, and S. It isn't a talent or attitude problem.

[jramsey4]

D: All of the above.

[firstdayfan]

I honestly think that its personnel and crossman. If nothing else we always had a good special teams and that was mainly when Scotty O'brien (think that was his name) was the special teams coach. We even had good ST when the rest of our team was terrible with no depth to speak of. When you look at our team today it doesn't have any special teamers, there is no Karl Hankton, Nick Goings, or Rod Smart. For years we have cursed Fox for keeping these guys around and now its biting us in the ass. We have young players who haven't played ST since high school and a Special Teams coach who hasn't had a good squad in years. Simple as that.

[Bobby]

We also lost Kyle, he was our snapper forever.

I don't think people realize what a loss Hankton was though, and in hindsight was he any less effective as a receiver than our current backups?

[mmmbeans]

goings is missed as well.

[rayzor]

all of the above = leadership problem....and i don't mean just crossman either.

leadership is responsible for getting the right people in the right job and making them perform up to their needed level.

if our special teams haven't been playing well it's because 1) we don't have the right players for the job or 2) we have people who can do the job but they just don't know what they are doing. both those problems are ultimately leadership/management problems. current coaches needs to fix the problem or we need to move on and find someone who can.

i don't think crossman has what it takes to get the job done. those who can get the job done, get it done.

when we start looking for a new ST coach we need to be looking for a bight and creative mind and someone that has a lot of experience coaching good special teams. we also need to be looking at rebuilding special teams from scratch. get a good core of people who are selected primarily because they are good returners, gunners, or any other skilled special teamer instead of picking someone as depth for a "skill position" and hoping that they can fit in as a special teamer until they can get "promoted" to play somewhere else (like marshall was).

[Davidson Deac II]

Last year we averaged 6.9 yards per return on punts, and 21 on kick returns. This year, its 17 and 32 respectively. Last year, we only allowed one Kr/Pr for a td, this year its already at 2. So what has changed between this year and last? It seems that personnel has been the biggest change. We are younger, and maybe the young guys just need time to gel

[PhillyB]

all of the above = leadership problem....and i don't mean just crossman either.

leadership is responsible for getting the right people in the right job and making them perform up to their needed level.

if our special teams haven't been playing well it's because 1) we don't have the right players for the job or 2) we have people who can do the job but they just don't know what they are doing. both those problems are ultimately leadership/management problems. current coaches needs to fix the problem or we need to move on and find someone who can.

i don't think crossman has what it takes to get the job done. those who can get the job done, get it done.

when we start looking for a new ST coach we need to be looking for a bight and creative mind and someone that has a lot of experience coaching good special teams. we also need to be looking at rebuilding special teams from scratch. get a good core of people who are selected primarily because they are good returners, gunners, or any other skilled special teamer instead of picking someone as depth for a "skill position" and hoping that they can fit in as a special teamer until they can get "promoted" to play somewhere else (like marshall was).

i agree with your points, but richard marshall was a damn good special teamer... he worked out pretty nicely with that method IMO.

[KSpan]

I'd say 70% execution/coaching, 30% personnel. I noticed in the second or third game that Thomas Davis appeared on the punt team... that points to personnel to me. However, whenever I watch a Panthers kick return or kickoff team coverage, what I see usually disappoints me.

On the return team the back 4 rarely move quickly - it looks to me like they take more of a 'wait and see what opens' approach than a 'full-steam ahead" approach. Our opponenets catch the ball and take off - the Panthers catch it and hesitate.

For the coverage team, it screams coachnig to me becuase of how often they are out of their lanes. I understand that you have to find the balance betwen lane coverage and converging on the returner, but it looks to me like the coverage closes down too early, leaving large cutback lanes.

[rayzor]

i agree with your points, but richard marshall was a damn good special teamer... he worked out pretty nicely with that method IMO.

i know but what good is he doing special teams now? he got "promoted" from special teams and we lost another big help there. it's the idea of special teams as being something you are promoted from that bothers me.

[KSpan]

i know but what good is he doing special teams now? he got "promoted" from special teams and we lost another big help there. it's the idea of special teams as being something you are promoted from that bothers me.

A couple of years back Manning Jr. and Gamble were both on kickoff coverage team... and they were both starters. I'm not saying Gamble should be on there now, but if Thomas Davis can cover punts why can't Marshall cover kickoffs?

[rayzor]

A couple of years back Manning Jr. and Gamble were both on kickoff coverage team... and they were both starters. I'm not saying Gamble should be on there now, but if Thomas Davis can cover punts why can't Marshall cover kickoffs?

good question. i think he should be. if a player does really well at some element of the game, you don't take him off of it unless he can be replaced by someone who is just as good or better. don't downgrade at any position. when we took marshall off special teams, that is exactly what we did.