Coaching Decisions - Special Teams (1 Viewer)

[SigFreudianSlip]

Very good point. I have thought about that myself about some of these fourth down calls.

Me too.

 

[NUSaintsfan]

So, that's a no, none of the coaches have said that Grupe was told to kick it into the endzone. Fans constantly incorrectly assume that every player executes exactly how the coach wants them too on every play.

Grupe has been good, but he hasn't been perfect. He's kicked at least one mid game kickoff into the endzone this season. He doesn't miss short FG's or extra points on purpose either, but he occasionally misses those too.

No player is perfect in execution, so the end result of players actions are not necessarily what the coach instructed them to do.

It's common for fans to make assumptions, jump to conclusions, and then convince themselves they know things they don't actually know.

I think your logic would be sound it were a yard inside the end zone but darn near out the back was purposeful.

Either way, it's a poor call. No time was ran off the clock and it put them ten yards closer to the FG.

 

[madsaint1967]

Good question
Not making them run clock when they had exactly 1 minute left with no timeouts was a head scratcher.

You can say they chose to kick deep to avoid the possibility of a long return.

However, the Saints routinely stop the return man on average at the 26 yard line.

There’s also the possibility that the Saints could have stopped the returner short of the 20 yard line.

Even better there could have been a penalty that would have backed them up around the 15 yard line.

With any of those outcomes, there would have been about 10 seconds of game clock removed and even if they had a chance for a FG it would have been from beyond 60-70 yards. They wouldn't have even tried it. Probably all Hail Mary heaves to the endzone.

That was a baffling decision to Kickoff into the endzone. It seems to me that putting the ball into play would have had better possibly outcomes.

Or a fumble. Special teams is usually a strong suit but not last week. Horrible decision to field a punt inside the 5 yd line, didn’t kick the field goal at the~10, and the touchback with 1 minute. Not acceptable!!