Barth and Forbath who has the edge? (1 Viewer)

I haven't rewatched it, but from the first go round, I thought it was pretty clear that it was NOT Forbath's fault. One of the blockers in the middle left got blown up so bad that he fell to his back at the snap. There was massive penetration by what looked like two players right in line with the kicker and one of them got his hand on the ball. I'm not sure what people want Forbath to do in that scenario - summon Morgan Freeman to curve the bullet?

I seem to recall Payton being upset and saying that "we stubbed the turf" or something similar with regards to the kick. That would seem to indicate an issue with the kicker.
 
I seem to recall Payton being upset and saying that "we stubbed the turf" or something similar with regards to the kick. That would seem to indicate an issue with the kicker.

He may have absolutely been disatisfied with that, but kickers stub the turf all the time and still make kicks. Is it a problem? Sure. And that may have altered the kick to the point that he wouldn't have gotten enough precision or power to make a 50 yarder anyways, were it not blocked. But regardless, a 50 yard kick is going to have to be a little low in its trajectory with any kicker and, in this case, would have been blocked either way.
 
Forbath has a stronger leg for kicking off.
I feel like the leg strength isn't the main factor being considered with kickoffs. Payton wants to kick it to the goal line to make the other team return the ball, therefore accuracy is the big factor. Any nfl kicker has enough power to kick it to the goal line.
 
He may have absolutely been disatisfied with that, but kickers stub the turf all the time and still make kicks. Is it a problem? Sure. And that may have altered the kick to the point that he wouldn't have gotten enough precision or power to make a 50 yarder anyways, were it not blocked. But regardless, a 50 yard kick is going to have to be a little low in its trajectory with any kicker and, in this case, would have been blocked either way.
He spoke as if it was the reason for the miss. I have to defer to the coach on that.
 
He spoke as if it was the reason for the miss. I have to defer to the coach on that.

Won't argue with that decision. But I urge everyone who is dogging on Forbath to go back and watch the game on YouTube and watch the close up slow mo replay. At the very least, it might calm some of the raging concerns in here for yet another kicker. The block occurs with about 5 min left in the 4th. I'm sure they noticed the critical blocking issue on that play as well after film review and are working to fix it.
 
You know what, I took another look at it from the Saints broadcast and it appears to have not been touched and the player who'm I thought blocked it was further outside than it had appeared. I was wrong in my earlier assessment and maybee it's just the angle and lesser quality from the other broadcast. Still not happy about the blocking, but it may still fall on Forbath's shoulders for that miss.
 
So you rather pick the guy with the lower FG pct. at the end of the preseason to be your starting kicker? Regardless if it was by one miss or 10, Hocker kicked 80% when it mattered (with longs of 50 and 53) to Hopkins' 60%. Picking Hopkins because he was winning the battle when things are all hunky dory in practice is a just dandy, but when it mattered in a live game situation he fell flat on his face and lost the job. You're going to take the guy that went 3-for-5 over the guy that went 4-for-5?

And spouting Hopkins' stats in a Redskins uniform is doing nothing to solidify your argument, it's hindsight bias at its finest. If anything, perhaps after losing the job to Hocker (and losing the job to Carpenter in Buffalo in 2014) finally made Hopkins get his head on straight and made him into the stellar kicker he is today. No one knows.
Sample size.

We essentially erased dozens upon dozens of kicks in practice in which Hopkins was consistently better because Hocker made exactly one more kick in a game out of five. That's it. One kick erased everything.

I love this staff, but they blew it. I said it when we cut him and I'm saying it today.
 
Sample size.

We essentially erased dozens upon dozens of kicks in practice in which Hopkins was consistently better because Hocker made exactly one more kick in a game out of five. That's it. One kick erased everything.

I love this staff, but they blew it. I said it when we cut him and I'm saying it today.

Again, would you rather a kicker that makes kicks consistently in practice or in a game? Hopkins blew it himself and he was lucky to have latched on with another team to prove he turned it around.

Think of it like a test, where the multiple choice, true/false and fill-in-the-blank portions (practice) are weighted far less than the essay portion (preseason games). It's far easier to make the grade when you're comfortable in knowing enough of the material than to breeze through the portions where conditions are ideal and the answers are practically there.
 

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