Given the weekends antics I was unable to get to The Drive that I wanted to but one thing that has stuck with me as we got into the week, amidst all the conference expansion drama, has been a couple of truly boneheaded special teams plays I saw on Saturday. Before we get into them let me remind you that football is three phases. Everyone it seems loves offense so much that the other two, especially special teams fall by the wayside.
It is great to score a lot of points. That’s cute and it is exciting for a lot of fans to watch on television but the fact is if you don’t bring the other two facets of the game to the table you’re going to lose when it counts. Personally games where teams go up and down the field on one another don’t do much for me; that’s just bad defensive football and I don’t really sign up to celebrate that sort of execution.
Now, special teams is a special part of the game for this guy. It is some of the most fun you can have on a football field as a player. The only time when you get to run full speed and slam your face into a guy. The time of the game where it is A-OK to stand up and just yell “HIT SOMEBODY” as your boys go flying down the field. It is where young players make their bones, veterans prove they are reliable and big plays can be made.
Momentum can be drastically swung one way or another. A miscue can suck the air out of a home crowd. A brain fart can change a back and forth, even keel game into a one sided affair.
Field position changes. Defenses get put into bad spots. Offenses get asked to do the damn near impossible. There’s a lot riding on it every time your four core special teams units take the field.
This past weekend two instances of just “what the hell was he thinking” took place that left this guy absolutely frustrated and baffled as to what their coaches are going over in the special teams meetings. Two pretty egregious mistakes that flipped the field, added to the home teams’ momentum and really just showed teams weren’t nearly as “crisp” as you’d expect them to be in the third game of the season.
The first play has turned into a mini-controversy in the SEC as Florida’s punt return team can be seen grabbing a “guard” on the Tennessee punt team and freeing up a lane for Chris Rainey to run through for the block.
Meh.
Cry about it.
That’s football until they call it. There’s no real difference between this move and a defensive tackle pulling a guard with him to let his linebacker through on a blitz or an end through on a game. No real difference here from when a defensive back gets a hold of receiver coming out of a break to help pull himself into the route. No real difference here from ripping a guys arm so his body turns and you can get your arms in his frame to block him on punt or kick return.
Just not something worth losing sleep over. But, I will say Joker Phillips is a wise man. Calling it to the league and officials attention pre-game means they will be more apt to call the foul should they see it this coming Saturday. Well played sir.
The holding was a non-issue but the play of the Tennessee personnel protector, John Propst was a big issue. You see, even with the hold and the slightly off line snap Chris Rainey should have never blocked that punt. Propst error in the blocking set up is what created the blocked punt. He absolutely whiffed on the speedy Gator, ole blocked Rainey who took the ball right off the foot as he’s done plenty of times before.
Even now, after having watched that block far too many times for a guy who isn’t sitting in film and doesn’t coach for either of these teams, I still can’t figure out what signaled to Propst that not taking the second most inside man from the snapper was a good idea. There were no twists, no overloads or other complicated approaches to the rush. Florida lined nine men up as potential rushers, eight on the line and Rainey set a step back but still clearly in the B-gap. On the snap two Gators defenders bail and one Tennessee gunner goes into coverage leaving seven Gators in the rush and eight Vols to protect.
Long snappers do what they can but basically there are seven on seven in this blocking scheme with no twists or overloaded sides. Three on the left side. Four on the right side. Discounting the snapper’s role there are four men on the line, two wings for the outside rushers and the personal protector to clean up any internal mess that slips through the cracks.
Mess like Rainey.
Now I’m sure that kid got an earful on the sidelines and then plenty more in the meetings so we’ll move on from that glaring special teams mistake to the one in the Auburn-Clemson contest. First quarter and Auburn’s up 14-0 and they get another stop on a Clemson drive. Enter Dawson Zimmerman, Clemson punter who blasts off a 56 yard punt down to the goalline. Easy, right? A touchback and Auburn ball at the twenty set to go on their third straight scoring drive and get up 21 nothing on Clemson before the first quarter ends.
Except redshirt freshman Trovon Reed, a reserve wide receiver and Auburn’s return man for this series, decides to catch the kick at the goalline and attempt to “make something happen.” Clemson’s coverage unit responds to the challenge bringing him down at the four. 16 yard difference. Just 16 yards.
But it isn’t just 16 yards. It flips the field. Auburn picks up just one first down while going twenty yards in six plays before punting. Punting from their own 24 resulted in Clemson getting the football at their own 40 yardline. 10 yards from the Auburn side of the field, somewhere in their previous three drives Clemson had yet to venture.
Eight plays and sixty yards later? Touchdown Clemson. 14-7, the crowd has life and Tigers vs Tigers is now a ball game.
If you’re Reed you cannot catch that football inside the ten. Should Clemson down the ball with a great special teams play then you’ve just got to live with it but a player cannot add to the mix by fielding the punt. Just can’t do it.
Going forward we can expect to see more special teams miscues and I’ll work to get them out there for you. Right now Propst and Reed are the guys who got the film room flack; you can’t turn guys lose coming from the interior of a punt rush and you cannot field that punt inside the five.
