Special Ed. Teams melt down (LA venting)

[LABillsFan]

17 points given up. How on earth do you let a team run back 2 kick offs for TD's and block a punt in one game. Mediocre teams don't allow that in a season. No excuse can be good enough to justify the outcome. The game Drew, Travis and even the lines had were more than I expected but leave it to the
Special Ed'ers to grab defeat out of the jaws of victory. I know there will be growing pains this year, I expect that, but there is a difference between growing pains and shear inability. The lack of depth on the Bills was shown today by the horrendous play of the coverage teams, I wanna see heads roll.

[northernbillfan]

:angry:

[BillsMan80]

NBF, bring back the old custom title...because we need some speshul teamz

[Buffalofan]

I didnt see tha game because they decided to show the Colts-Jafs game here in Alabama .. But I have to agree with LA .. how do you give up 2 kickoffs for TD's? I can just imagine the faces at the Stadium .. had to be total disbelief. Obviously a huge shakeup is need on Special teams .. what a sad way to lose a game that we should have won.

[casdhf]

Shoulda been there....I could see the coverage over-persuing the whole time especially in OT

[shelby]

kick some LA...who's gettin fired first?!?!?

[LABillsFan]

At this point I don't care. BUT I do have a couple questions though.

I was in favor of keeping Morris and Bryson in case something happened to Henry, but neither touched the ball in the game which meant they were fresh and unbruised and sould be focused on their one and only duty. They both have speed and toughness, So WHY with all that going for them, did they get BURNED BAD on those run backs????

Did we improve with Denman and Tuitele?

[Ð]

Rooks gotta learn that slacking on ST's = points on the board.

GW will run the ST's into the ground next week @ practice, guaranteed.

[venis2k1]

I learned how to cover someone on special teams in Pee Wee league. Special teams suck, they sucked back in the Music City Miricle, They Sucked in the preseason, and they sucked today.

[LABillsFan]

I know venis, They do, (Although I did force and recover a fumble on punt coverage in High School) but that's how 2nd and 3rd string guys make the team and move up. Hard work and effort.

[Rebecky]

I didn't see the game here in TN, but read that
(1) it was the same guy on the runback who burned us -- why did we kick to this guy twice? and
(2) the Jets used a wedge but it was apparently not a center wedge, it was a wedge on one side only, and this formation evidently confused our ST defense -- twice.

After the first debacle, why didn't our HC assign two reliable first-string players to ST as insurance against another disaster today?

I saw a similar occurrence watching the Titans game today -- Titans ST blew a play which led to a Philly TD -- then Coach Fisher assigned a couple of premier players to ST to be SURE that didn't happen again today. There is no player on any team too good to play ST and throw a block or make a tackle when needed.

[Ð]

lanes, boys, lanes

[Rebecky]

OK -- lanes -- but what if the opposition is, as apparently the Jets were, limiting themselves to one side of the field on the return. Is that what confused our guys on the inactive side -- should they stay in their lanes or go over and help?

[Sabre Ally]

Originally posted by BillsMan80
NBF, bring back the old custom title...because we need some speshul teamz

Doh! There's the answer right there. It's all my fault for changing nbf's title.

[colin]

Originally posted by Rebecky
OK -- lanes -- but what if the opposition is, as apparently the Jets were, limiting themselves to one side of the field on the return. Is that what confused our guys on the inactive side -- should they stay in their lanes or go over and help?

It was a directionaly kick, the coverage wanted him on that side both times. The just f@cked up their assignment and flowed to where the ball had been. If just one of them want straight at Morton they would not have tackled him but would have stopped the return.

[lordofgun]

More than guys being out of their lanes, the problem was with missed tackles. They had him going east-west on boith kickoffs, but he cut it back and no one wanted to tackle. I don't think it's a weakness in schemes, it just boils down to the basic fundamentals of tackling.

[Rebecky]

It looked like a pretty good return scheme -- I finally saw the replays. Have the whole team cover the runner with a sideline wedge, then after most of the coverage is eliminated, open a hole and let him break to the opposite side which is, by that time, nearly vacant.

If your coverage on the quiet side of the field crosses over to help, it leaves half the field vacant for the runner. If they stay in their lanes, the wedge could just carry along the sidelines all the way to the end zone because we'd have what, 7 tackles trying to get through 10 blockers? And 4 guys standing in their lanes in the middle and opposite side of the field doing nothing?

This does not look like an easy formation to defend against to me -- what am I missing?

[LABillsFan]

I don't know what you're missing but teams have used directional kicks for decades, it's nothing new. How they melted down twice is for only the Gods to know.

[colin]

Originally posted by Rebecky
It looked like a pretty good return scheme -- I finally saw the replays. Have the whole team cover the runner with a sideline wedge, then after most of the coverage is eliminated, open a hole and let him break to the opposite side which is, by that time, nearly vacant.

If your coverage on the quiet side of the field crosses over to help, it leaves half the field vacant for the runner. If they stay in their lanes, the wedge could just carry along the sidelines all the way to the end zone because we'd have what, 7 tackles trying to get through 10 blockers? And 4 guys standing in their lanes in the middle and opposite side of the field doing nothing?

This does not look like an easy formation to defend against to me -- what am I missing?

The whole point is that the ball carrier cannot run through blockers who are being pushed back, then whoever's lane is open just makes the easy tackle on the contained runner. What you see in the replay is everyone making ***** attempts at tackling and trying to "free lance" away from their assignment, they all want to be heros. Only the gunner is supposed to be a hero.

Aside from the two blowups, we were pretty solid on the kick coverage, and last year we were excellent. I think throwing in a starter or two will make enough a difference and light a bit of a fire under our regular ST clowns. I bet L. Fletcher would blow up his man and nix the return.