December 27th, 2010
How important are kicker and punters? Well as we can see special teams played an important role in the Giants/Eagles NFL football game yesterday. We can talk about Michael Vick all we want and how he is a possible MVP Candidate. But in the end special teams doomed the end for the Giants.
We saw Tom Coughlin chew out Matt Dodge at the end of game after he told him to kick the punt out of bounds and he didn’t. But what about the onside kick the Eagles recovered? A perfectly executed onside kick by David Akers, with two Giants players not watching the ball off the tee.
We can talk about the bad punt: how it stayed in bounds and it was low – from my standpoint it looked like he dropped the ball inside and came across his body, his steps and body were all directed to angle the punt out of bounds, but he dropped it inside. But the punt coverage teams and kickoff return team have some basics they need cover. I would not want to be in that meeting room this week with ST Coach Tom Quinn.
The Kicking System 