Bills’ special teams— mea culpa (for now)

[Ed_Formerly_of_Roch]

The other thing they did today on almost every kickoff.  Bass kicked off the ball low so it first hit in the "landing zone" and then rolled into the endzone, most of the time resulting in touchbacks.  But if the ball first touches in the "landing zone" and results in a touchback, the team starts on the 20 instead of the 30.   Last week Bass apparently practiced this on a couple of kicks, one landed short of landing zone which resulted in team taking ball at 40.  So a bit of risk/reward, but today he didn't miss on any of them.

 

Didn't realize this was even a rule until the 3rd quarter after the Bills FG,  there was a touchback and Denver started on 20

[Doc]

19 minutes ago, Chaos said:

They tried a fake punt in every playoff game they played in this year. 

 

Stupid Smiley!

[MJS]

25 minutes ago, Ed_Formerly_of_Roch said:

The other thing they did today on almost every kickoff.  Bass kicked off the ball low so it first hit in the "landing zone" and then rolled into the endzone, most of the time resulting in touchbacks.  But if the ball first touches in the "landing zone" and results in a touchback, the team starts on the 20 instead of the 30.   Last week Bass apparently practiced this on a couple of kicks, one landed short of landing zone which resulted in team taking ball at 40.  So a bit of risk/reward, but today he didn't miss on any of them.

 

Didn't realize this was even a rule until the 3rd quarter after the Bills FG,  there was a touchback and Denver started on 20

Chris Brown and Steve Tasker were talking about it this week asking why more teams aren't doing that. Good call by them.

[Einstein]

30 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:

 

The not blocking the Bronco who downed that punt was because their flankers were then playing the fake

 

Shakir was right there and just chose not to block the Bronco. 

Screams coaching to me.

 

[GunnerBill]

12 minutes ago, Einstein said:

 

Shakir was right there and just chose not to block the Bronco. 

Screams coaching to me.

 

 

He is the returner once you decide not to field it you don't get anywhere near the ball.

[klos63]

1 hour ago, Einstein said:

No idea what game you were watching but the ST’s were below average as usual.

 

- Martin almost got blocked on our one punt (watch it again). His lead up is soooo long.

 

- Gave up a first down on a fake punt that Tony Romo predicted after watching them turn their backs in practice when guarding the gunners (but apparently Smiley didn’t).

 

- No one blocked Denver’s punt team from downing the ball at the 1 yard line. All it would take is blocking the one Bronco near the endzone.

 

I suppose you can say they didn’t give up anything catastrophic, but they certainly did not play well.

How about Bass? He's special teams,  right?

Did you forget 5 for 5 on kicks?

[ChasBB]

Ultimately, this special teams mishap cost the Bills about 18 yards in field position and about 2:12 of possession time depending on how accurately you measure it:

 

   * Fake punt took place with 10:49 remaining in the 2nd Qtr from the Denver 43-yd line

   * Real punt took place with 8:37 remaining in the 2nd Qtr from the Buffalo 39-yd line.

 

Bills did well to dig themselves out from their own 1-yd line, but the psychological effect (loss of momentum) of the fake punt's success could have been magnified even more had the defense not stepped up to force the 2nd punt to begin with.  Every little detail is crucial in games like this.  Fortunately, the Bills were good enough to not let it impact them too badly, but just can't make these sorts of mistakes.

 

The "doink" didn't hurt, either!

Edited 6 hours ago by ChasBB
clarity

[Doc]

1 minute ago, ChasBB said:

Ultimately, this special teams mishap cost the Bills about 18 yards in field position and about 2:12 of possession time depending on how accurately you measure it:

 

   * Fake punt took place with 10:49 remaining in the 2nd Qtr from the Denver 43-yd line

   * Real punt took place with 8:37 remaining in the 2nd Qtr from the Buffalo 39-yd line.

 

Bills did well to dig themselves out from their own 1-yd line, but the psychological effect (loss of momentum) of the fake punt's success could have been magnified even more had the defense not stepped up.  Every little detail is crucial in games like this.  Fortunately, the Bills were good enough to not let it impact them too badly, but just can't make these sorts of mistakes.

 

It might not have made (much of) a difference in starting field position for the Bills if the Broncos had actually punted from the 43.  What's more impressive is the defense not folding after getting off the field and seeing the ST's allow a fake.

[ChasBB]

5 minutes ago, Doc said:

 

It might not have made (much of) a difference in starting field position for the Bills if the Broncos had actually punted from the 43.  What's more impressive is the defense not folding after getting off the field and seeing the ST's allow a fake.

Yes, defense really showed up at a very important time in the game with the outcome still in the balance.  Hats off to their performance.  They'll need to continue to play this way the rest of the way on their run for the Lombardi trophy.  Defense wins championships, as the saying goes.

[Freak-O]

Lots of people just want to complain. They will always find something. The Bills win the next game 47-0, “Yeah, but did you see McDermott’s socks?! He should be fired for those!”

[Livinginthepast]

The fake was a huge gaffe and the only reason it came about is because we got no pressure whatsoever on the kicker.  We havent blocked a punt in a while and we have no KO return TDS or Punt return Tds. The STs  today, despite the fake and the punt to the one were ok today. Its unfortunate though that they dont really help us but often hurt us.

[Einstein]

1 hour ago, GunnerBill said:

 

He is the returner once you decide not to field it you don't get anywhere near the ball.

 

he didn’t have to be anywhere near the ball. He just had to block the person going to the ball from getting there. this is taught in middle school football.

 

edit: On second look, Shakir actually made a half ass attempt to block him

Edited 5 hours ago by Einstein

[Brianmoorman4jesus]

Our special teams is horrendous. Is this satire? No. What’s there to feel good or sorry about? We are routinely not good on STs. 

[colin]

shakir and TY are honestly sick returners, bass was really solid.  hit all his kicks and did a good job on kick offs.  the coverage team was solid, but that was mainly bass kicking it to timbuck3 each kick off.

 

honestly, special teams is like 80% your kicker.  if he can nail long kicks and put the ball in the end zone on kick offs, you are basically playing advantage football.  returners help too, but that depends on the d making stops, which they did.

[Buffalo_Stampede]

28 minutes ago, Brianmoorman4jesus said:

Our special teams is horrendous. Is this satire? No. What’s there to feel good or sorry about? We are routinely not good on STs. 

They lack detail on special teams. Little things that turn into big things.

 

Tells me the ST coach is in over his head. 

[Rich Stadium Original]

Probably even more than offense and defense (in some cases), special teams is a study in tendencies. 

You use film study to see where a team is consistently weak in line blocking, and that's where you send your punt block..or when a team lines up in this fashion that's where I expect them to try a FG block.

But to me where the Bills are particularly weak is analyzing their OWN team for their OWN weaknesses and patching up the holes.

Whether it's the punt they had blocked for the TD or the fake punts they've given up, it's obvious that the other teams exploited tendencies the Bills never saw in their own team.

[BuffaloBillyG]

They played plus football overall today IMO. Credit to the coaches and players 

 

However the culmination of STs all season (and last season) lead me to hoping we have someone new in charge of the unit next year. 

[NoSaint]

3 hours ago, Einstein said:

 

he didn’t have to be anywhere near the ball. He just had to block the person going to the ball from getting there. this is taught in middle school football.

 

edit: On second look, Shakir actually made a half ass attempt to block him

the one defense there is he isn’t the guy back there regularly. To some degree, especially in this game, you tell him to keep it real simple back there. 
 

If the guy playing the position regularly can’t handle it - totally different but with a fill in I’m pretty ok with him being reigned in completely 

2 hours ago, BuffaloBillyG said:

They played plus football overall today IMO. Credit to the coaches and players 

 

However the culmination of STs all season (and last season) lead me to hoping we have someone new in charge of the unit next year. 

I think our expectations are pretty low. If it’s plus, it’s barely. 
 

they gave up a possession. That’s massive in playoff football. Most of the rest was just executing pretty normal expectations. 

[Simon]

5 hours ago, Einstein said:

 

Shakir was right there and just chose not to block the Bronco. 

Screams coaching to me.

 

 

Did he wave for a FC?

If so, he's not allowed to contact the gunners.

Regardless, it's his first game returning punts and it's an elimination game.

I'm OK with coach keeping it simple and telling him if he's not going to field it, just get the hell out of there.