We touch on it from time to time and it's been brought up that the 3-4 personnel can help us here but one thing that has to improve greatly is the SPECIAL TEAMS PLAY.

I read an article on another site and did not realize how bad we were in this area. The article sited the stats and we were in the upper 20's in every catagory and dead last in kickoff returns.

The "hidden yardage" factor in how many yards we gained and how many we gave up on punts and kickoffs was pathetic. We oftened bordered on 200 yards and you can't win games doing that.

One good thing for Slocum is there is no where to go but up.

I know we lost two games for sure with the blocked gimme at Chicago and the two long kickoff returns late to Carolina. It looks like we have some big legs in camp so maybe we can find a punter that can kick it out of his shadow and hopefully Crosby can become clutch for us.

It would be nice to see a few long kickoff returns like we saw fairly often in '07 but rarely did anyone get loose on returns last year.

We have some great athletes so Slocum needs to put this unit together and make it an asset vs. a liability.

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You're right, kickoff returns were sad. It was usually: Run up to the 25, try to make a move, fail, and go down. Punt returns weren't too awful. Blackmon broke a few and I don't see him going anywhere but up this year after getting a year behind him to help with his confidence (btw - nice to see he also got an INT in that last open OTA practice).

What's strange is that I was under the impression that our ST coverage was near the top in 2007, and the beginning of 2008, and then it plummeted for whatever reason(s). I honestly think it may have just been an effect of a disappointing mid-season where we lost close games and slipped in the standings after going 13-3. Well, that combined with some injuries. I don't know if it's scheme related - not a good judge of ST play design.

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Teams like Chicago live off of ST's and turnovers. If the Bears were not as efficient as they are in ST's they would get pummeled but they hang in a lot of games by getting big returns and turnovers on ST's.

If we do get back to a playoff quality team we will have to do better here and especially at least break even with teams in this area if we do get to the post season.

ST's become huge in game 17 when you absolutely cannot afford to lose those return and kick coverage battles.

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Speaking of "hidden yards," I don't even want to look at the statistic of how many return yards we lost last year to illegal blocks in the back and other senseless penalties. (Seriously, people, they call it every time -- get a clue already!)

Had you been able to find someone gullible enough to go along with it, you could have made yourself a decent chunk of change betting on a penalty every single return. You would have won more than you lost, that's for sure.

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My blood is boiling now nonstop. That's one of those penalties (holding on a kickoff return) that you pretty much assume is taking place somewhere every return. I used to get so pissed off at the Packers getting screwed by it every game. Hell, I'm still pissed off.

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That's because the Bears had no offence. I'm still not convinced that Jay made that much of a difference, we will see how the season played out.

But one thing is for certain, we NEED to get better on special teams. If you ask me our ST hasn't really been good since the Super Bowl years. '07 was the exception, but still we haven't really had good ST in a long while. It seems we always fizzle out at the 20-25 yard line and that just pisses me off.

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ST and penalties crushed us last year (especially the first part of the season).

Good points. Hidden yards are one of the reasons Barry Alvarez did so well at UW. Wish we could get a really good ST coach and personell it would really help. Maybe the new changes will help.

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