it's not a fluky stat. It's indicative of the deficiencies with this group. They've been awful in KO coverage all year...and if another team has a strength, you don't allow them to exploit it. Why was Coughlin bitching out his punter at the end of the game today? He kicked straight to Jackson.

I can't believe we're discussing this. Honestly, which has a higher probability of taking the ball to the 40, 50, hell, your own 5 yard line? Kicking to an fat OL or the starting KR with a 26 yard return avg?

You just presented an offensive lineman kick return stat, that, in itself is ridiculous... And squibbing has a huge likelyhood of being returned to the 40 yard line at least because it's a squib! That is potentially where it lands... lol... I just wanted to play on your assumption that Tate was goijg to return it 26 yards, tis all, arguing about this kind of thing is stupid because many people have many different views about football and how it should be handled... You and I my friend, don't agree

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Ok Bang how is this, Crosby kicks the ball deep to say the 5, Tate gets his 25 to 27 yd average return. The Pats have the ball at the 30.

Now what they did was squibbed the ball to an offensive lineman who grabs the ball at the 25 and has it covered up right away waiting to be tackled for the first 10 yards and and the Packer players just went right by him. He should have been tackled no farther than the 35. It was the right choice to squib it. Watch it for yourself he is looking to be tackled for the first 10 yards. He is just not wanting to fumble it. Also watch the Packers and they just kind of trot along like oh well he will get tackled.

[youtube]ufkHymQEuqc[/youtube]

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it was awful Peprah said it was his fault,they were surprised he had the ball,and he should have tackled him and didn't ,s.t have been bad just do don't think,that is what he should have done.

Thanks for the vid hazer. One thing you notice in the replay is that in the amount of time it took Connolly to get from the NE 25 to the 35 I could have eaten a sub and read "A Tale of Two Cities" 2.5 times.

We kicked to one of the slowest guys on the team and he toasted us. It's extremely embarassing, but I don't see how in the hell that's a coaching error rather than an error in execution.

Or they coulda, y'know, kicked it out of the end zone and given it to them on the 20.

20 < 26 << 73

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What are the odds that Alge Crumpler or one of the other offensive linemen returns it 73 yards? I'm guessing pretty low since it never happened before in NFL history.

A pick 6 < a completion...pretty stupid for Mike to call the "throw it to James Jones" play.

Can we cherry pick a few more plays today to criticize due to the unlikely consequence/outcome rather than the reasoning behind it?

I don't like squib kicking period, musccy. Field position is perhaps one of the least-appreciated elements of strategy (from a statistical perspective), particularly against an offense like the Patriots'. Why give up any yardage unnecessarily? Pin them as deeply as possible. That's one of the reasons why I'm so much in favor of going for it on 4th-and-goal from the 1. From a statistical perspective, a team is much less likely to mount a scoring drive from the 1 yard line than whatever line they start at after a kickoff or punt return.

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I love squib kicks. I'd rather put the ball in the hands of fullback or offensive lineman at the 30 than a kick return specialist at the 10 (which is about as far as Crosby's kicks go, BTW).

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I completely agree on the field position which is my point.
We lost 2 more ST guys before/during the game (Zombo, Collins) and have been pitiful all year. If a 300 pound linemen gashes us, what gives you more confidence in kicking to a guy with a 26 yard average?

I see your point about kicking it out of the endzone, but the only time I recall them trying was when they were playing the other direction, so I'm speculating wind played a factor in that decision.