The main question about kubiak is always . .. will he stay with what works! He has a tendency to try to get too cute and try to be too smart. overthinking things. . . . Rocket River
I've been trying to figure out the cause of special teams downfall these last few years. Because I remember Marciano being considered a pretty good special teams coach in the past and the Texans teams being at least average to above average on special teams. The only thing I can come up with is a possible correlation to the removal of the "Wedge" on kickoff returns. Is it possible that Marciano has no idea how to teach his group how to block on a KR if he can't use the wedge? Or that he has no idea how to teach his guys to attack on a KR if the opposing team isn't using a wedge? I just don't get it. Our overall talent level should be higher right now on special teams than it has in years past, but it sure as hell doesn't seem like it.
^interesting thought on the downward spiral of special teams. Casey: He's been playing well at FB in terms of blocking but I also found some of the positions they put Casey in were pretty interesting and creative. It was after the late hit on Casey, the RB flared out to the flats and Casey slowly drifted to that side as well, as if he was pass protecting, then he cut into the middle of the defense for a catch. It was only a 7 yard gain but he was never picked up by the LBs.
One of the biggest issues with special teams this year is going to be teaching players to swallow their pride and take a knee. With teams kicking off from the 35, it's not just a matter of where the ball is when players catch it. There's also the fact that return men have a five-yard head start compared with other years, allowing them to be much deeper in coverage than they normally would. The Texan return men seem to be among the worst offenders in not grasping that concept, and it's why we've had a handful of KOs returned to around the 12. Of course, that's just the return half of the equation. Our coverage is awful, period, and there's no simple mental adjustment to fix that.
I think some of that may be attributed to it being preseason and kicks being forced to return to get in practice and see what the players have.
The new kickoff rule is just terrible. Might as well just start teams at the 20 rather than wasting time on the kickoffs. I wouldn't be surprised to see them change it back if scoring goes down some this year. Field position is a huge part of the game, not to mention the ability of a good kick return to give the offense a lift.
The blocking has been atrocious from what I have seen by the time the returner leaves the end zone the opposing team is already within the 20. Granted I think only one returner has made more than 1 person miss. For the other side of special team the coverage is just as bad. Dating back to the Kris Brown days I think the kicker leads the team in tackles on special teams. Both punters haven't been nothing to brag about, I think Mayard right now is probably the favorite since he seems to be decent on pinning teams inside the 20.
The NFL doesn't want to lose onside kicks. If the ball is just placed at the 20 fans will lose interest in a game quicker when a team is up by more than a touchdown with a few minutes remaining.
maybe it could be an option to kickoff BUt yeah, between the mandatory TD reviews and the worthless kickoff which will result in a touchback 85% of the time, the game's flow is completely ruined.
how often are onside kicks actually surprises? couple times a year? And a team could also still perform kickoffs and still kick it deep. SUre, it's a bit silly, but no more silly than actually performing a kickoff to only have it kneeled 85% of the time.
It's the preseason. No one is "kneeling", they're all being told to run it out because they need to evaluate their return men and special teams blocking units. I'm sure he meant touchbacks/kicked out of the endzone 85% of the time.
i would/will expect those numbers to rise a good amount because 1) i think many teams have been returning normal kneeling situations because they want to get practice in returning the ball. and 2) kicker experimentation could be going on in the preseason. But yeah, 85% is just a made up number, but the point was to imply that the majority will probably not be returned. We will see how the year plays out though.
What constitutes effective, though? I, too, watched him: He absolutely drove their starting LT twice into Brees (the plays you mentioned) and then was quite effective covering the run and even made a decent play in coverage. He may eventually be Demarcus Ware; but it looks like it might take time. The explosion is indeed an issue; I saw some of the Bronco game on NFLN and Miller is just on another planet. Good golly, that guy *explodes.* But some of that is also expereince. The good ones jump the snap expertly, something he might be able to do eventually. But I don't think he's a liability, either - do you?
com on dude. i watched to, i agree that he drove the tackle into brees, and he was in on more plays where he had to drop in the flat. but don't mention demarcus ware again, please
No, yeah - that's the baseline everyone is using because of Phillips; it's also the easy shorthand for a havoc-wreaking edge rusher. It's not necessarily meant to be a straight-up comparison.
I unfortunately missed the vast majority of the game so I can't comment on Mario. I will say that no one who thinks that Mario will never need to worry about the run should bother comparing him to DeMarcus Ware.
Brooks Reed explodes better than Mario....Mario improved from the first game, but I'd like to see more from him against SF for me to feel comfortable with him.
