Rick Gosselin's special team rankings

macbob
Veteran Member Topic Starter

14 years ago

Via Atlanta Falcons.com

http://life.atlantafalcons.com/topic/3916386-rick-gosselins-special-team-rankings/

http://www.dallasnew...owboys-20th.ece

Youth, speed, coaching give Pats No. 1 unit; Cowboys 20th

Tom Brady and Bill Belichick are a powerful combination on the football field. So are Scott OBrien and Belichick.

Belichick hired OBrien as his special teams coach in his first venture as an NFL head coach with the Cleveland Browns in the early 1990s. In 1994, the Browns led the NFL in special teams and captured a wild-card playoff spot.

But Browns owner Art Modell spent 1995 laying the groundwork to move the franchise. The Browns finished 5-11, skipped town and left Belichick behind. Modell fired him.

Fifteen years later, Belichick again hired OBrien to coach his special teams. And again, the New England Patriots qualified for the playoffs with the best special teams in the NFL, according to rankings compiled annually by The Dallas Morning News.

The leagues 32 teams are ranked in 22 categories and assigned points according to their standing one for best, 32 for worst. The Patriots finished first with a composite score of 269 five points better than the runner-up Tennessee Titans.

Seven playoff teams finished in the top 10, including five division champions. But the Green Bay Packers finished 29th in special teams tying the 2009 New Orleans Saints for the lowest finish by a Super Bowl champion.

The Patriots vaulted from 16th in the NFL in special teams a year ago to first under OBrien. But the biggest leap in the rankings was staged by the Titans, who moved up 24 spots from 2009, in large part, because of rookie return specialist Marc Mariani. Tennessee finished in the top 10 in kickoff and punt returns.

The Patriots did not lead in any of the 22 categories but finished in the top five in 10 of them, including punt returns, scoring, blocked kicks and penalties. New England also finished in the top 10 in two other categories.

Belichick has been building a younger roster in recent years, and the Patriots finished the 2010 season with 23 players with two years or less experience.

Those young legs made the Patriots a faster, more physical unit on special teams also a more productive one. Second-year men Patrick Chung and Kyle Arrington and rookies Devin McCourty and Dane Fletcher combined for 47 tackles, a blocked kick and fumble recovery in the kicking game.

In addition, Zolton Mesko had a superb rookie season as the punter with a 38.4-yard net average and only five touchbacks, and second-year return specialists Brandon Tate and Julian Edelman combined to run three kicks back for touchdowns.

The Cowboys tumbled from fourth in the NFL in special teams when they were NFC East champions in 2009 to 20th in 2010 despite another superb season by punter Mat McBriar and the emergence of rookie Dez Bryant as a return threat with his two touchdowns on punts.

But the Cowboys ranked 27th in the NFL in kickoff coverage, lost three fumbles and suffered two blocked kicks. One of the fumbles and one of the blocked kicks were returned for touchdowns.

Another defending division champion that took a huge tumble was San Diego. The Chargers collapsed from seventh in 2009 to 32nd in 2010 and their failures on special teams caused them to miss the playoffs with a 9-7 record.

San Diego allowed five touchdowns on special teams and suffered five blocked kicks. Special teams blunders contributed directly to the first three San Diego losses losses that allowed the 10-6 Chiefs to overtake the Chargers as AFC West champs.

Team rankings
The NFL's 32 teams are ranked in 22 kicking-game categories and assigned points according to their standing in each category (one for the best through 32 for the worst). This is a composite score for those categories:
Rank Team Points
1. New England Patriots 269
2. Tennessee Titans 274
3. Cleveland Browns 277
4. Chicago Bears 280
4. Oakland Raiders 280
4. Seattle Seahawks 280
7. New York Jets 294
8. Baltimore Ravens 311
9. Pittsburgh Steelers 314
10. Atlanta Braves 318.5
11. Jacksonville Jaguars 332
12. Arizona Cardinals 346
13. Washington Redskins 348
14. Philadelphia Eagles 350.5
15. Detroit Pistons 359.5
16. St. Louis Rams 362.5
17. San Francisco 49ers 378.5
18. Minnesota Vikings 384
18. New Orleans Saints 384
20. Dallas Cowboys 387
21. Tampa Bay Buccaneers 388
22. Houston Texans 405
23. Carolina Panthers 405.5
24. Kansas City Chiefs 407.5
25. Miami Dolphins 408
26. Denver Broncos 412.5
27. Buffalo Bills 413
28. Cincinnati Bengals 421.5
29. Green Bay Packers 441
30. New York Giants 445.5
31. Indianapolis Colts 458.5
32. San Diego Chargers 480.5

KICKOFF RETURNS
Best: Atlanta, 26.5 yards
Worst: Cleveland, 17.0 yards
Cowboys: 23rd, 21.2 yards

PUNT RETURNS
Best: Chicago, 17.1 yards
Worst: Pittsburgh, 6.1 yards
Cowboys: Second, 15.9 yards

KICKOFF COVERAGE
Best: Cleveland, 17.8 yards
Worst: Baltimore, 26.0 yards
Cowboys: 27th, 24.3 yards

PUNT COVERAGE
Best: Cincinnati, 4.8 yards
Worst: San Diego, 18.9 yards
Cowboys: Third, 6.2 yards

STARTING POINT
Best: NY Jets and Chicago, 31.5-yard line
Worst: Indianapolis, 22.7-yard line
Cowboys: 28th, 24.7-yard line

OPPONENT STARTING POINT
Best: Atlanta, 22.2 yard-line
Worst: Minnesota, 30.8-yard line
Cowboys: 11th, 25.9-yard line

PUNTING
Best: Cowboys, 47.2 yards
Worst: Chicago, 40.1 yards

NET PUNTING
Best: Cowboys, 41.7 yards
Worst: San Diego, 30.8 yards

INSIDE-THE-20 PUNTS
Best: NY Jets, 42
Worst: San Diego, 13
Cowboys: Tied for 23rd, 22

OPPONENT PUNTING
Best: Pittsburgh, 40.4 yards
Worst: Arizona, 47.9 yards
Cowboys: 13th, 43.1 yards

OPPONENT NET PUNTING
Best: Chicago, 32.6 yards
Worst: Arizona, 41.4 yards
Cowboys: Fourth, 35.4 yards

FIELD GOALS
Best: Oakland and St. Louis, 33
Worst: Buffalo, 16
Cowboys: Tied for 17th, 24

FIELD GOAL PERCENTAGE
Best: Minnesota, 94.4 percent
Worst: Washington, 68.5 percent
Cowboys: 30th, 75 percent

OPPONENT FIELD GOAL PCT.
Best: Atlanta, 65.2 percent
Worst: San Diego, 100 percent
Cowboys: 30th, 92.5 percent

EXTRA POINT PCT.
Best: 24 teams tied at 100 percent
Worst: Cincinnati, 93.7 percent
Cowboys: 31st, 95.4 percent

POINTS SCORED
Best: Oakland 26
Worst: 7 teams tied with 0
Cowboys: Tied for fifth, 18

POINTS ALLOWED
Best: 6 teams tied with 0
Worst: San Diego, 34
Cowboys: Tied for 29th, 18

BLOCKED KICKS
Best: Seattle, 4
Worst: 12 teams tied with 0
Cowboys: Tied for 11th with 1

BLOCKED KICKS AGAINST
Best: 13 teams tied with 0
Worst: San Diego, 5
Cowboys: Tied for 23rd, 2

TAKEAWAYS
Best: Oakland, 5
Worst: Four teams tied with 0
Cowboys: Tied for 20th with 1

GIVEAWAYS
Best: Four teams tied with 0
Worst: Three teams tied with 4
Cowboys: Tied for 25th with 3

PENALTIES
Best: Atlanta, 7 for 53 yards
Worst: Philadelphia, 25 for 198 yards
Cowboys: 12th, 16 for 129 yards

DallasMorningNews wrote:

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macbob
Veteran Member Topic Starter

14 years ago

http://www.totalpackers.com/2011/02/14/packers-at-bottom-of-special-teams-rankings-again/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+totalpackers+%28Total+Packers%29

Under Stock (who was fired after the 2008 season), we finished 32nd in 2005 & 2006, 7th in 2007 and 26th in 2008. In Slocums we're no better, ranking 31st in 2009 and now 29th. Interesting to note, the Saints were also 29th in Special Teams last year when they won the Super Bowl...

Packers At Bottom Of Special Teams Rankings Again

The Green Bay Packers are near the bottom of the Dallas Morning News annual special teams rankings for the third year in a row.

They finished 29th, up two spots from last season. The 2008 team finished 26th and special teams coach Mike Stock was forced into retirement after that performance.

The rankings are compiled by ranking each team in 22 special teams categories and assigning points according to their standing one for the best, 32 for the worst.

The Packers finished with 441 points. New England was first with 269 points. The New York Giants (445.5), Indianapolis Colts (458.5) and San Diego Chargers (480.5) were the teams that were worse than the Packers on special teams.

At 29th, the Packers finish is the lowest for a Super Bowl champion, tying the 2009 New Orleans Saints.

One of the reasons for the Packers slight improvement in this years rankings is punter Tim Masthay. With Jeremy Kapinos kicking the ball in 2009, the Packers finished dead last in punts inside the 20.

The 2009 team also finished dead last in penalties.

Special teams were clearly the Packers Achilles heal in 2010 and while the offense and defense were able to overcome that throughout the teams playoff run, the unit still cost the Packers during the season.

Again, were looking at just how bad the unit is statistically. In two seasons under special teams coach Shawn Slocum, the Packers have somehow managed to perform worse than they did under his predecessor.

Of course, the Packers won the Super Bowl, so Mike McCarthy & Co. might as well just sweep that under the rug.

TotalPackers.com wrote:

Greg C.
Registered

14 years ago

I'm surprised that the Packers were so low. I figured they would be below average, but not THAT low. Maybe there is a bell curve here, with only the top few teams and the bottom few teams deviating far from the norm.

blank

wpr
Preferred Member

14 years ago

With all the injuries the ST were in real trouble. I hope they are able to focus on players who will be key ST contributors.

Dexter_Sinister
Registered

14 years ago

The one thing I noticed, the ranking appeared random compared to any power ranking I have seen. It looks like ST has little to no bearing on how a team finishes the year.

Achilles' heal was the death of him. I don't think the Packer were killed by their ST.

It was a pretty pointless point.

Indy was ranked 30th when they played 29th NO in the super bowl.

I want to go out like my Grandpa did. Peacefully in his sleep.
Not screaming in terror like his passengers.

yooperfan
Veteran Member

14 years ago

An actual punt and/or kick/punt return specialist would be a nice addition to this Super Bowl winning team and bring the Packers ratings up big time.

Nonstopdrivel
Preferred Member

14 years ago

None of these statistics matter. Statistics are just for people to complain about things they don't like. The only statistics that matter are wins, and the Packers won the Super Bowl this year. :sarcasm:

millertime
Member

14 years ago

The one bad thing about he Superbowl is that is possibly saved Slocum's job.

We need new returners.

macbob
Veteran Member Topic Starter

14 years ago

"Dexter_Sinister" wrote:

We weren't killed by our ST in the playoffs, but during the regular season they cost us, and we could have missed the playoffs because of the ST gaffs:

Against Chicago in week 3, there was a blocked FG, a KO out of bounds, a 28 yd punt return by Hester set up 1 TD and a 2nd return of 62 yards for another TD in a game we lost by 3 pts.

Against Wash, Crosby hit the upright on a 53 yard FG as time expired in a game we lost by 3 in OT (No, ST didn't lose the game and yes, it was a 53 yarder and not a bad kick from that distance, but it was still a ST fail that could have pulled the game out for us).

In Atlanta, we tied the game up with 56 secs left, and our KO team allowed a huge return from 4 yards deep in the end zone, with a facemask penalty added on to give the Falcons the ball at the GB 49 yard line, with enough time to drive the 19 yards required to kick a FG and win by 3.

Against the Patriots, who can forget their OL man lumbering down the field to our 4 yard line, leading to a TD right before half in a game we ultimately lost by 4 pts?

And the ST didn't cost us a game in the playoffs, but they certainly could have:

Against Philadelphia, our players hung around a punt that we had no intention of fielding (they had shown this tendency all year--NOTHING good can come of that--get the hell away from the ball), allowing the Eagles to block one of our players into the ball and then recovering it. Fortunately, our D held them and they missed the FG.

edit: Against Atlanta, we allowed a 102 yd KO return for a TD that put the Falcons back up 14-7 right after we had tied the game early in the 2nd. end edit:

Against the Steelers we had the first punt where Shields was blocked into Williams, but we were fortunate to recover and toward the end where Williams was hanging around a punt again, and like the Eagles game they tried to block us into the ball. Williams took exception to it, took a swing at a Steeler and was penalized 15 yds.

Dexter_Sinister
Registered

14 years ago

#10

How man super bowls has Hester won for the Bears? If they had gotten a great WR instead of him, they would have had 3 times as many TDs and yards as Hester has produced. It doesn't matter if you start at your 40 all the time if you can't find someone to catch the ball.

Teams with the 29th ranked ST won the last 2 super bowls.

You want the team to be better everywhere, but sacrificing anything for a return guy is a waste. If the return guy is the BPA, get him. If he is not, don't bother because a good WR will produce 3 times more than the best return guy ever.

I want to go out like my Grandpa did. Peacefully in his sleep.
Not screaming in terror like his passengers.

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