Onside kick

[T master]

14 hours ago, Awwufelloff said:

Why do teams go lateral? Kick it straight forward and have kicker ram the guy catching it. I’ve never seen an onside kick like that. Would definitely increase chances from 3%…

 

I can't figure out WHY they have to tell the other team they are going to do a OSK that takes all the gamesmanship out of it . 😎

[86poker]

14 hours ago, Awwufelloff said:

Why do teams go lateral? Kick it straight forward and have kicker ram the guy catching it. I’ve never seen an onside kick like that. Would definitely increase chances from 3%…

 

You've never seen one of these?  You mean since the rule change.  Right?

 

Because we have one of these in our history, in one of the most amazing games ever lol

[flmike]

14 hours ago, GunnerBill said:

 

That should have been a flag. The Lion hit Taron before the ball travelled 10 yards and got to him. I know it was bang, bang and that is hard for the officials to see, but definitely should have been a flag.

I watched it in stop time and yes, the guy hit Taron at 8 yards. Reply would have confirmed. 

[flmike]

12 hours ago, JohnNord said:

You are actually right.  I didn’t notice this during the broadcast:

 

 

Thanks. Much better view. Taron was lucky a Bill knocked it back to him.

[NoSaint]

It was almost another special teams gaffe 

 

I wonder how many kicks they’ve practiced at taron while he’s also trying to line up his block 

[Rubes]

14 hours ago, GunnerBill said:

 

That should have been a flag. The Lion hit Taron before the ball travelled 10 yards and got to him. I know it was bang, bang and that is hard for the officials to see, but definitely should have been a flag.

 

I'm not clear on the rules here...I thought the kicking team can make contact with opposing players before the ball travels 10 yards, but they can't make contact with the ball until it travels 10 yards. At least, that was the old rule...do the rules now state otherwise?

 

[Awwufelloff]

2 hours ago, 86poker said:

 

You've never seen one of these?  You mean since the rule change.  Right?

 

Because we have one of these in our history, in one of the most amazing games ever lol

Yeah 30+ yrs ago. I’m talking about recent times.

[GunnerBill]

The mini movie has an even better view. Not only does Bates get there early he rakes Taron's facemack and tries to pull his head off while he is trying to field the ball. 

 

Yea... I'd have been pissed had the Lions recovered. Blatant foul.

[frostbitmic]

I'd like to see the Kicker unload a waist high rocket at the closest defender to him, you're bound to get a deflection if he can't get out of the way fast enough.

[GunnerBill]

22 hours ago, T master said:

 

I can't figure out WHY they have to tell the other team they are going to do a OSK that takes all the gamesmanship out of it . 😎

 

Because it allows you to not have to apply the same formation and blocking rules that now apply to the normal kickoff. The on side kick is a victim of the gimmicky solution to the kick off problem. 

[Cash]

4 hours ago, frostbitmic said:

I'd like to see the Kicker unload a waist high rocket at the closest defender to him, you're bound to get a deflection if he can't get out of the way fast enough.

 

Has anyone tried that yet?  I kinda feel like someone did, but maybe it was in college or something.  In any case, it's one of those strategies that relies on luck/variance, and coaches famously hate those.  And I get why - they're used to seeing precise planning and execution beating luck consistently.  But under the current rules, the best case for a perfectly-executed onside kick attempt seems to still be a recovery less than 10% of the time, and maybe less than 5%.  At that point, it's time to embrace randomness.

 

I think there's maybe a parallel with Hail Mary and multi-lateral plays (think Miami Miracle against the Patriots a couple years ago).  They're never going to work well enough to be a good full-time strategy.  But they'll never stop working some of the time, and that makes them much more dangerous in desperate times than conventional plays.  Another analogy: blackjack vs roulette.  If played properly, blackjack has a lower house edge (and if you're great at counting cards, you can actually make the house edge negative).  Long term, a good blackjack player will consistently fare better than the average roulette player.  But if you're trying to get a big win in the short term, playing individual numbers in roulette is much more likely to deliver that than blackjack.