Mike Meals
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The View From Beyond The Shoe: Turn It Down!
Mike Meals via our good friends at Buckeye Battle Cry
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
On the evening of Sunday, September 18th, I was lying in bed watching the Packers vs Vikings as I tried to nod off to sleep. At one point, the offense stalled and had to punt. The ball was near midfield. There was a penalty. NBC cut to a zoom on the referee who proceeded to tell us all what we already knew, “Delay Of Game, on the offense, 5 yard penalty, still 4th down”.
At that point, I went to twitter to ask
Again…when a team gets a penalty near the 50, on 4th down, why doesn’t the D decline it? Why give their punter more room to work?
— Mike Meals (@mmeals) September 19, 2016
I grew up playing football. I studied the game. I have learned the game. I spent a lot of time working with coaches. I’ve spend way more time watching the game. In this situation, I start going insane wondering what in the world is going on?
Everyone here at The Buckeye Battle Cry grew up (or grew older) worshipping at the Temple of Tressel. We all fully understand the importance of the kicking and punting game. We still take Mass with Meyer and hear him preach the same sermon. We have accepted that this side of the game is so important that it’s okay to have starters on the kick coverage team, punt coverage team, on…well, you get the point.
But common sense makes me wonder why you, as the head coach of the receiving team, would accept these penalties? If the ball is at midfield, the punter has only 50 yards to play with, obviously. The best punting team in college football coming into last weekend’s games was Utah (Ohio State was a close second). Utah averages 52.1 yards per punt, with a long of 66 yards. The best punt of the young college season is 71 yards, and our very own Cameron Johnston has a season long of 68 yards, which is tied for fifth longest of the year. Add in that only 13 punters in all of the FBS level of college football have failed to register a punt of or over 50 yards.
Now, I know I played a lot of football in my younger days, and have drank a lot of beer since then, but even my math comes to tell me that teams are probably going to kick it to the end zone from the 50 yard line. Now I know there are certain punters who could pin the ball inside the 10 yard line still from that distance. And I know there are some who could do because they lack the ability to hit the end zone from the 50. But why would you, as the coach, want to give them more room to work?
Last time I checked, getting possession of the ball at the 20 yard line was a lot better than taking over at the 5 or 10 yard line. You have more room to work, room for your quarterback to move and even take a sack (not that anyone wants you to take a sack), but you get my point, right? And as we saw in the Ohio State vs Oklahoma game, turning the field like Cam did can really set the tone for the rest of the game, depending on the offense’s ability to capitalize.
The real question on a lot of these punts in the first place is “Why didn’t the coach just go for it on 4th down?” but that is a question for another time and another article. Look at the North Carolina 37-36 win over Pitt this weekend, where they converted FOUR 4th down conversions. But what will it take for these coaches to realize that they are giving an advantage to the opponent? At some point, a light bulb needs to go off telling them to start declining the delay of game penalties.
Think about how many times an Ohio State game you’ve been watching has a field goal kicked because the offense sputters out at the 15 yard line. Now think what those offenses would give to have that extra 15 yards covered. Guess what…I have a way here to help on some of those red zone trips.
Writers Note: We at Ohio State have been blessed when it comes to kickers in the last 15 years or so. But if you have not, look at Cam Johnston’s stats for this season: 3 games, 11 punts, 557 yards, 50.64 yard average. Having a weapon like that for the few occasions (11 to be exact) that the offense has had to surrender the ball to pin the opponent deep in their own territory? No wonder Ohio State has managed to have such a lights-out edition of the Silver Bullets this year.
http://gty.im/503095950
The post The View From Beyond The Shoe: Turn It Down! appeared first on The Buckeye Battle Cry: Ohio State News and Commentary.
Continue reading...
Mike Meals via our good friends at Buckeye Battle Cry
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
On the evening of Sunday, September 18th, I was lying in bed watching the Packers vs Vikings as I tried to nod off to sleep. At one point, the offense stalled and had to punt. The ball was near midfield. There was a penalty. NBC cut to a zoom on the referee who proceeded to tell us all what we already knew, “Delay Of Game, on the offense, 5 yard penalty, still 4th down”.
At that point, I went to twitter to ask
Again…when a team gets a penalty near the 50, on 4th down, why doesn’t the D decline it? Why give their punter more room to work?
— Mike Meals (@mmeals) September 19, 2016
I grew up playing football. I studied the game. I have learned the game. I spent a lot of time working with coaches. I’ve spend way more time watching the game. In this situation, I start going insane wondering what in the world is going on?
Everyone here at The Buckeye Battle Cry grew up (or grew older) worshipping at the Temple of Tressel. We all fully understand the importance of the kicking and punting game. We still take Mass with Meyer and hear him preach the same sermon. We have accepted that this side of the game is so important that it’s okay to have starters on the kick coverage team, punt coverage team, on…well, you get the point.
But common sense makes me wonder why you, as the head coach of the receiving team, would accept these penalties? If the ball is at midfield, the punter has only 50 yards to play with, obviously. The best punting team in college football coming into last weekend’s games was Utah (Ohio State was a close second). Utah averages 52.1 yards per punt, with a long of 66 yards. The best punt of the young college season is 71 yards, and our very own Cameron Johnston has a season long of 68 yards, which is tied for fifth longest of the year. Add in that only 13 punters in all of the FBS level of college football have failed to register a punt of or over 50 yards.
Now, I know I played a lot of football in my younger days, and have drank a lot of beer since then, but even my math comes to tell me that teams are probably going to kick it to the end zone from the 50 yard line. Now I know there are certain punters who could pin the ball inside the 10 yard line still from that distance. And I know there are some who could do because they lack the ability to hit the end zone from the 50. But why would you, as the coach, want to give them more room to work?
Last time I checked, getting possession of the ball at the 20 yard line was a lot better than taking over at the 5 or 10 yard line. You have more room to work, room for your quarterback to move and even take a sack (not that anyone wants you to take a sack), but you get my point, right? And as we saw in the Ohio State vs Oklahoma game, turning the field like Cam did can really set the tone for the rest of the game, depending on the offense’s ability to capitalize.
The real question on a lot of these punts in the first place is “Why didn’t the coach just go for it on 4th down?” but that is a question for another time and another article. Look at the North Carolina 37-36 win over Pitt this weekend, where they converted FOUR 4th down conversions. But what will it take for these coaches to realize that they are giving an advantage to the opponent? At some point, a light bulb needs to go off telling them to start declining the delay of game penalties.
Think about how many times an Ohio State game you’ve been watching has a field goal kicked because the offense sputters out at the 15 yard line. Now think what those offenses would give to have that extra 15 yards covered. Guess what…I have a way here to help on some of those red zone trips.
Writers Note: We at Ohio State have been blessed when it comes to kickers in the last 15 years or so. But if you have not, look at Cam Johnston’s stats for this season: 3 games, 11 punts, 557 yards, 50.64 yard average. Having a weapon like that for the few occasions (11 to be exact) that the offense has had to surrender the ball to pin the opponent deep in their own territory? No wonder Ohio State has managed to have such a lights-out edition of the Silver Bullets this year.
http://gty.im/503095950
The post The View From Beyond The Shoe: Turn It Down! appeared first on The Buckeye Battle Cry: Ohio State News and Commentary.
Continue reading...