Special Team / Special Teams

[fu77fan]

This was clearly a special team this year. I hate it that we were not able to beat Montana and keep it going.

If you had told me before the game that we would score 28 points, I would say that we would win. I think where we lost the game was with our special teams. Having rewatched the kickoff return, by the time the Montana return man reached the 25 yard line, it was apparent that he only had the kicker to beat. I am not sure that I have ever seen that before, where it was pretty much certain at the 25 yard line that unless the kicker stopped him that he was going to score. And it is amazing that their coach just put the play in on Wednesday before the game. The punt return was also a dang killer.
We also had several short punts. The offense and defense played well enough to win. We lost the game on special teams.

[gofurman]

This was clearly a special team this year. I hate it that we were not able to beat Montana and keep it going.

If you had told me before the game that we would score 28 points, I would say that we would win. I think where we lost the game was with our special teams. Having rewatched the kickoff return, by the time the Montana return man reached the 25 yard line, it was apparent that he only had the kicker to beat. I am not sure that I have ever seen that before, where it was pretty much certain at the 25 yard line that unless the kicker stopped him that he was going to score. And it is amazing that their coach just put the play in on Wednesday before the game. The punt return was also a dang killer.
We also had several short punts. The offense and defense played well enough to win. We lost the game on special teams.

I was also shocked at how easy that was. We DEFINITELY got beat all to heck on special teams. I mean beat all to CRAP - never seen it so easy on a kickoff return either. It was over on that return just a few sounds after he caught it

[apaladin]

This was clearly a special team this year. I hate it that we were not able to beat Montana and keep it going.

If you had told me before the game that we would score 28 points, I would say that we would win. I think where we lost the game was with our special teams. Having rewatched the kickoff return, by the time the Montana return man reached the 25 yard line, it was apparent that he only had the kicker to beat. I am not sure that I have ever seen that before, where it was pretty much certain at the 25 yard line that unless the kicker stopped him that he was going to score. And it is amazing that their coach just put the play in on Wednesday before the game. The punt return was also a dang killer.
We also had several short punts. The offense and defense played well enough to win. We lost the game on special teams.

Captain Obvious!

[DiamonDin]

This was clearly a special team this year. I hate it that we were not able to beat Montana and keep it going.

If you had told me before the game that we would score 28 points, I would say that we would win. I think where we lost the game was with our special teams. Having rewatched the kickoff return, by the time the Montana return man reached the 25 yard line, it was apparent that he only had the kicker to beat. I am not sure that I have ever seen that before, where it was pretty much certain at the 25 yard line that unless the kicker stopped him that he was going to score. And it is amazing that their coach just put the play in on Wednesday before the game. The punt return was also a dang killer.
We also had several short punts. The offense and defense played well enough to win. We lost the game on special teams.

I was also shocked at how easy that was. We DEFINITELY got beat all to heck on special teams. I mean beat all to CRAP - never seen it so easy on a kickoff return either. It was over on that return just a few sounds after he caught it

If you noticed on the initial kickoff coverage, I believe the special play they put in a couple days before the game was to double-team (and tackle) the FU coverage man with center of field responsibility. With him out of the way, there was no one else but the kicker to beat. I believe they saw a weakness in our kickoff coverage and exploited it. I just don't understand how one of the officials didn't flag the blatantly obvious holding on the play. Kudos to Montana for getting away with it.

[gofurman]

This was clearly a special team this year. I hate it that we were not able to beat Montana and keep it going.

If you had told me before the game that we would score 28 points, I would say that we would win. I think where we lost the game was with our special teams. Having rewatched the kickoff return, by the time the Montana return man reached the 25 yard line, it was apparent that he only had the kicker to beat. I am not sure that I have ever seen that before, where it was pretty much certain at the 25 yard line that unless the kicker stopped him that he was going to score. And it is amazing that their coach just put the play in on Wednesday before the game. The punt return was also a dang killer.
We also had several short punts. The offense and defense played well enough to win. We lost the game on special teams.

I was also shocked at how easy that was. We DEFINITELY got beat all to heck on special teams. I mean beat all to CRAP - never seen it so easy on a kickoff return either. It was over on that return just a few sounds after he caught it

If you noticed on the initial kickoff coverage, I believe the special play they put in a couple days before the game was to double-team (and tackle) the FU coverage man with center of field responsibility. With him out of the way, there was no one else but the kicker to beat. I believe they saw a weakness in our kickoff coverage and exploited it. I just don't understand how one of the officials didn't flag the blatantly obvious holding on the play. Kudos to Montana for getting away with it.

Right. Still they beat us fair and square on that (kind of). . They exploited a weakness that took ONE missed call. If I have a chance at a single missed call vs a TD in a low scoring game I’ll take that all day. It was the right ROI for Montana and we got burned. Again the ROI of a TD vs needing a missed call was better coaching from Montana. Game winning plays on special teams where they flat out coached us.

Also it really showed us what I mentioned a few weeks ago. I asked “will we ever get a kickoff return to the opponent side of the field ?” In a close game. As playoffs often are. It is these type things that often separate the winners and losers. When O and D become even or close special teams are so key.

As they say there is a hold on almost every play

We never had a single 50 yard kickoff return this year did we ? I’m really asking

[purplehorse123]

We have always known (I think) that when we played FBS teams with a higher number of better athletes that we might get burned on KO & punt returns. My thought is that the KO was more of them calling the right play and executing it whereas the punt return had more to do with his talent and speed.

I would love to know if we have ever given up a KO return and a punt return for a TD in the same game.

[The Jackal]

This was clearly a special team this year. I hate it that we were not able to beat Montana and keep it going.

If you had told me before the game that we would score 28 points, I would say that we would win. I think where we lost the game was with our special teams. Having rewatched the kickoff return, by the time the Montana return man reached the 25 yard line, it was apparent that he only had the kicker to beat. I am not sure that I have ever seen that before, where it was pretty much certain at the 25 yard line that unless the kicker stopped him that he was going to score. And it is amazing that their coach just put the play in on Wednesday before the game. The punt return was also a dang killer.
We also had several short punts. The offense and defense played well enough to win. We lost the game on special teams.

I was also shocked at how easy that was. We DEFINITELY got beat all to heck on special teams. I mean beat all to CRAP - never seen it so easy on a kickoff return either. It was over on that return just a few sounds after he caught it

If you noticed on the initial kickoff coverage, I believe the special play they put in a couple days before the game was to double-team (and tackle) the FU coverage man with center of field responsibility. With him out of the way, there was no one else but the kicker to beat. I believe they saw a weakness in our kickoff coverage and exploited it. I just don't understand how one of the officials didn't flag the blatantly obvious holding on the play. Kudos to Montana for getting away with it.

I lost count of how many holding holds were not called on Montana.

Watch Robinson's interception. The Montana RG took Xavier Stephens around the neck and yanked him to the ground. Happened over and over.

To Montana's credit, if they aren't going to call it, keep doing it.

[FUBeAR]

6 Furman Defenders, at or very near the Returner, were neutralized by illegal blocks in the back and/or holds on the opening kickoff return for a touchdown.

A Kick Coverage Defender cannot be Coached to avoid a block in the back. There is no scheme that Coaches can devise to avoid having Kick Coverage Defenders getting blocked in the back. A Kick Coverage Defender cannot defeat an illegal block in the back. Simple physics (inertia, etc.) dictates that a Kick Coverage Defender cannot overcome a block in the back.

Other than having kicked the ball deep into/out of the endzone, or kicked the ball out of bounds, there is nothing Furman could have done to prevent that return for a touchdown on the opening kickoff, or any kickoff where over half of the Team is neutralized by blocks in their backs, being held, or otherwise rendered incapable of tackling the Returner.

Montana’s Players did an outstanding job of completely neutralizing 6 of Furman’s Players and not running into / being tackled by the remaining 5. Furman’s scheme was fine. Furman’s Players, by and large, did a fine job of covering the Kickoff. Another group of game participants was not ready to begin the game and had a total lapse of execution of their responsibilities on that play.

There were ‘only’ 4 Furman Players blocked in the back on the punt return TD, so we did have a more favorable chance to have prevented that score, but the play was still tilted to present quite a challenge to Furman’s Punt Coverage Team.

[FUBeAR]

This was clearly a special team this year. I hate it that we were not able to beat Montana and keep it going.

If you had told me before the game that we would score 28 points, I would say that we would win. I think where we lost the game was with our special teams. Having rewatched the kickoff return, by the time the Montana return man reached the 25 yard line, it was apparent that he only had the kicker to beat. I am not sure that I have ever seen that before, where it was pretty much certain at the 25 yard line that unless the kicker stopped him that he was going to score. And it is amazing that their coach just put the play in on Wednesday before the game. The punt return was also a dang killer.
We also had several short punts. The offense and defense played well enough to win. We lost the game on special teams.

I was also shocked at how easy that was. We DEFINITELY got beat all to heck on special teams. I mean beat all to CRAP - never seen it so easy on a kickoff return either. It was over on that return just a few sounds after he caught it

If you noticed on the initial kickoff coverage, I believe the special play they put in a couple days before the game was to double-team (and tackle) the FU coverage man with center of field responsibility. With him out of the way, there was no one else but the kicker to beat. I believe they saw a weakness in our kickoff coverage and exploited it. I just don't understand how one of the officials didn't flag the blatantly obvious holding on the play. Kudos to Montana for getting away with it.

I lost count of how many holding holds were not called on Montana.

Watch Robinson's interception. The Montana RG took Xavier Stephens around the neck and yanked him to the ground. Happened over and over.

To Montana's credit, if they aren't going to call it, keep doing it.

Jackal speaks the truth. Just would elaborate that it was an excellently well-executed horse-collar tackle. FUBeAR foolishly never tried this technique in his OL days. He believed he would have been caught if he had.

[The Jackal]

I'd have to go back and watch, but if you told me that there was fairly egregious holding on 70% of Montana's pass plays, I'd believe you.

There's a pretty good reason one of the nation's top pass rush units wasn't getting to the QB. Some of that has to do with their OL hitting our DL with the Diamond Cutter.

[FU Hoopla]

This was clearly a special team this year. I hate it that we were not able to beat Montana and keep it going.

If you had told me before the game that we would score 28 points, I would say that we would win. I think where we lost the game was with our special teams. Having rewatched the kickoff return, by the time the Montana return man reached the 25 yard line, it was apparent that he only had the kicker to beat. I am not sure that I have ever seen that before, where it was pretty much certain at the 25 yard line that unless the kicker stopped him that he was going to score. And it is amazing that their coach just put the play in on Wednesday before the game. The punt return was also a dang killer.
We also had several short punts. The offense and defense played well enough to win. We lost the game on special teams.

I was also shocked at how easy that was. We DEFINITELY got beat all to heck on special teams. I mean beat all to CRAP - never seen it so easy on a kickoff return either. It was over on that return just a few sounds after he caught it

If you noticed on the initial kickoff coverage, I believe the special play they put in a couple days before the game was to double-team (and tackle) the FU coverage man with center of field responsibility. With him out of the way, there was no one else but the kicker to beat. I believe they saw a weakness in our kickoff coverage and exploited it. I just don't understand how one of the officials didn't flag the blatantly obvious holding on the play. Kudos to Montana for getting away with it.

I lost count of how many holding holds were not called on Montana.

Watch Robinson's interception. The Montana RG took Xavier Stephens around the neck and yanked him to the ground. Happened over and over.

To Montana's credit, if they aren't going to call it, keep doing it.

Jackal speaks the truth. Just would elaborate that it was an excellently well-executed horse-collar tackle. FUBeAR foolishly never tried this technique in his OL days. He believed he would have been caught if he had.

Indeed, FU was foiled by missed 'holdings' all last week

[palafan]

When was the last time we gave up a KO or PR for a TD?