Playing Devils advocate....Special Teams

[steelerfreak]

I am not accepting the play of our kickoff team. I know that there are many calling for the firing of the ST coach.

I do have to ask though, if any of you were the special teams coach, what do you do differently on kickoff? It is a pretty routine play. Stay onside, run like your hair is on fire, stay in your lane, come in under control, take a good angle to the ball carrier, and wrap up when you hit.

You are limited in the personnel you are going to be able to use, The guys you have are the "marginal" NFL players who should be most motivated to keep their jobs. Outside of doing that "muddle huddle" before the kicker approaches, I dont know what we expect out of the ST coach for our kickoff team woes. I think this part of the game is simply execution, and not the plan.

I welcome your responses. Remember, I am one of us.

[ark steel]

It seems like we would be better off just kicking it out of bounds on purpose...no TD's allowed!!!!

[jdsteeler]

It's sad they could start around the same place after the penalty without the risk of 6.

[VAN58STEELER]

They need a good gunner. Logan's got heart but no size. He's not a pure tackler. They need to save his gas for run-backs and not burn it on chasing someone down. It is a ridiculous that he is on the cover team. The ironic thing was that during the pre-season, I was salivating at the prospects of our return game...only to see the opposition return it at will game in and game out.

I'll say one thing about Logan. He has delivered. He has gotten the team better field position on more than a few occasions. Unfortunately the offense has squandered this field position on more than one occasion.

[Steeler B]

It seems like we would be better off just kicking it out of bounds on purpose...no TD's allowed!!!!

yeah, seriously.

[Pittsburgh]

It's in their heads or something.

This is rediculous. Unacceptable. We went from Best to Worst in a few months... Who did we cut out there.

OH CRAP Anthony Madison... yep. Him and Donavan Woods, needed to be out there since game one.

But sadly i didnt think he would be that important. I was wrong. I wanted him cut..... That was a Mistake in Hindsight. At the moment.

I wanted Donavan woods since day one as most will remember. Never understood that decision.

[Supersteeler]

Kickoff coverage is about "want to". You go blow up the guy trying to block you and get your ass to the ball carrier. Allowing yourself to get blown out of the play has nothing to do with the coaching staff or scheme. However, I expect the coaching staff to make personnel changes and if that means putting some starters back out there, then so be it. Ryan Clark and James Harrison have been pleading with Tomlin for 2 weeks to be put on the coverage unit.

[Tibs]

#1 -- I drop two additional gunners behind Reed and set up the coverage unit like this (see diag).

#2 -- I take lightweights like Stefan Logan & William Gay off kick teams and replace them with safeties or linebackers.

[VaSteelerFan]

I was thinking the other day about the lack of defensive players in the first couple rounds of the draft lately. Those early draft picks are what ends up being your better ST players... and we've gone mostly offense recently.

[z500zag]

There are 3 or 4 obvious fixes.

1. The players stay in their lanes initially, but then they over-pursue. Watch on replay how one key cut keeps leaving 4 or 5 guys in the dust because they get too bunched up trying to get where the returner is heading -- apparently not realizing that he can change where he's headed a lot faster than the defender can react.

2. Get a real LB and S out there, like Harrison and Clark. Harrison is not getting much pressure, he could help contribute on coverage teams. We get Timmons out there, but he's slow now with his extra bulk, and really not that great at shedding a blocker and making a tackle.

3. Drop Logan from returns (use Wallace or Moore), and add a specialist kicker that can get a touchback 50% of the time, and get it deep and high the rest. Jeff Reed is a joke on kickoffs, maybe we have to sacrifice decent returns from Logan to not give up return TD's -- and how bad could Wallace/Moore be in comparison? And any kicker in the league could give a better effort at tackling than Jeff "I'm Gayer than Gay" Reed. I'm not expecting a miracle, but how about throwing yourself into his legs, or grabbing the dude by the facemask and twisting... A 50 yard return isn't great, but it's vastly better than a TD, if worse comes to worse.

4. There is certain a technique to shedding blockers, but much of it is attitude. Remember that our "scrubs" are going against their "scrubs" -- not like we're expecting our backup linebacker to get free from their all-pro fullback. Someone needs to light a fire under a few asses.

I could come up with more options if my fricken job depended on it...

How about squib kicking it if a major threat like Cribbs is back there? I'd hapily give them the 30 to 35 yard line, which is about what we normally give up anyway.

[GregLloyd'sDisposition]

What about finding a placekicker whose sole responsibility is kicking off so the return (if there is one) begins three yards into the end zone? Do these guys grow on trees?

I know that takes probably someone off the squad, such as a linebacker, but having an extra LB or corner quite hasn't worked out well this year.

[Stoney]

I noticed that KC's TD was returned by their starting RB. Percy Harvin returns kick for the Vikings.

So tell me again why Wallace is too valuable to return kicks?

Yesterday was proof that games can be won and lost by return games. Like many here, our coaching staff places too little importance on ST.


And if allowing as many return TDs as we have isn't enough to get the ST coach fired, then what is? I fully expected he'd have been canned by the time they left the locker-room, and sent home on a different flight.

Two losses as a direct result of our kick coverage - sad.

[papa lazarou]

It looks like the Steelers have changed their goal this year and are working hard to compete in June 2010 in Marrakech with their Special Olympics Team, as opposed to the Superbowl this coming February in Miami.

[Milkman Dan]

I noticed that KC's TD was returned by their starting RB. Percy Harvin returns kick for the Vikings.

So tell me again why Wallace is too valuable to return kicks?

Yesterday was proof that games can be won and lost by return games. Like many here, our coaching staff places too little importance on ST.


And if allowing as many return TDs as we have isn't enough to get the ST coach fired, then what is? I fully expected he'd have been canned by the time they left the locker-room, and sent home on a different flight.

Two losses as a direct result of our kick coverage - sad.

I think if I was going up against a team that chronically allows return TDs, I would put my fastest guy back there for just that game. It's not like he's going to take a hit.

[steelerfreak]

Never said they weren't important. I was just looking for suggestions for improvement of our coverage team. Looking for solutions, not just gripes about it. I still don't think the st coach is ever gonna have the authority to determine how many of what position we keep on the roster. Or demand he get starters on special teams.

[AJR]

This is not rocket science. Other than criss crossing guys into lane coverage, it's mainly attitude with some discipline. I'm just baffled as to why it hasn't been fixed. I haven't gone back to study the film, but each time, the returner gets a head of steam (thanks to the short kick from Reed), finds a gaping seam and is off to the races. Either someone is getting blown up consistently, or someone is consistently running out of their lane. It's not the whole unit. it's got to be 1 or 2 people. We are now in uncharted waters and our level of futility is now unsurpassed in the annals of professional football.