With Livas getting everyone's attention, the Mitchell signing, and roster battles I thought it would be a good time to take a closer look at our ST's.
Fields, Carp, and Denny are among the best at their positions, and we are set. Carroll did a nice job in returning KO's, a 24.3 avg, and ranked #11 by PFF. Bess had a good 11.4 avg returning punts but PFF must have seen a whole lot of missed opportunities as they ranked him #43 of 49. Both are based on playing at least 8 games.
I'm not yet sold on Livas but really hope he works out as a game changer. Aside from the obvious, it should make Bess and Carroll a little fresher, while allowing Gates and Bush to concentrate on O.
Our best guys on STs were Hilliard- 7 games 8 tackles, Culver- 7 games, 10 tackles, Jones- 8 games, 8 tackles, Alama-Francis- 4 games, 4 tackle, 2 assists, Wallace- 5 games, 7 tackles, Ness- 3 games, 3 tackles, and Spitler- 5 games, 4 tackles.
Wallace, Ness, and Sapp were our best on punts. Moore, fighting for a WR spot, played only 1 game, 0 tackles. We had three big losses in Amaya- 8 games, 13 tackles, Cobbs- 6 games, 2 tackles, and Dobbins- 5 games, 4 tackles.
Adding Mitchell- 9 game, 9 tackles, 1 assist, and Trusnik- 9 games, 7 tackles should be a big help. I would bet Wilson and Edds will be as well.
Anyone I missed?
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smahtaz likes this.
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Maybe that Dobbins played ST didn't he? And didn't Trusnik also play ST?
Ryan Baker also stepped in as a blocker on the FG unit and settled things down. -
Thanks Padre, added in Dobbins and Trusnik. No info on Baker. What do you think of Bess on returns, and how do we compare with last year at this point?
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That is one of Livas's hurdles SB, Bess is a sound returner, but not an explosive Returner, he will avg 10 ypa, which is actually solid for a PR, Livas offers that big play potential, but can he grind out Bess's 10 ypa and top Carroll's 23 ypa on kickoffs?
And stay healthy?
Overall Mitchell and Trusnik are CLEAR upgrades on ST of that there should be no doubt, if Livas can slide in as a Returner, Imo there is no doubt the Unit will top the 29th place finish of 2010, might see 1 or 2 Td's as well. -
I think for once in the last 3 years our Special Teams are headed for stability and solid play. Could prove to be very useful.
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I do not think Carroll is a good kick off returner because he gets KILLED as a kick off returner. Livas was much better because he wasn't taking huge hits.
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Tony has to get his fist pump fixed.
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It actually really pissed me off Carpenter missed that FG in preseason. He better fix himself quick.
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Joke about it if you must, but IMO we need to consider bringing in some competition to push Carpenter. Not only has he been bad lately as I said before, but his FG% for 2010 was the 2nd worst in the league as for regular kickers. Only Graham Gano was worse.
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I've already pointed out (elsewhere) that since the Bills game with the 4 misses from extreme range DC Cash has not been the same kicker.
I think He'll be fine, but also think if we see another miss in the preseason Irish should kick some tires so to speak. -
The curse of Olindo Mare lives!
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I think Carp will be be just fine, and I believe the new kickoff rules will help him as well. He does not have the strongest leg but, was very good in directional kickoffs, which is going to help ST's this year.
I am puzzled by PFF's very low ranking of Bess returning punts, as they have really liked him as a WR. I have to ask them why. Did anyone else see a reason? -
He was something like 15 or 16th in touchback pct last season so basically middle of the pack. What killed his average last season was 40 yds and beyond, especially between 40 and 49. I think from 39 yds on in, he is perfect for his career.
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Now that deserves a fist pump. :)
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PFF had ranked our special teams tied for #3 with Cleveland last year, and ranks Bess #43 of 49 punt returners, despite his good 11.4 average. This raises some questions. I have asked them to clarify, and they e-mailed back that they are jammed up right now but, will get back to me later today, a good thing.
In the meantime, what does everyone else here think of these two PFF rankings before their answer? -
They're saying we were #3 overall on STs??? That is totally shocking to me. We had multiple blocked punts, we had a blocked FG returned for a Td, Kickoff returned against us for a TD. We scored no STs TDs ourselves and our kicker had the 2nd worst FG pct. What did we do right to be 3rd overall? Only thing that jumps out is Fields is in the upper echelon for gross avg and for punts inside the 20.
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We did have some VG play from guys like Hilliard, Culver, Wallace, Jones, Amaya, etc. Aside from the Pat's abortion, I thought we did pretty well. Their thought will be interesting.
The Bess thing is something I do not understand. Could he have missed that many plays to be better? -
For ST's rankings I look to Rich "Goose" Goslein of the Dallas News' rankings, he has been spot on for yrs as the standard.
PFF is just good for tackles and stuff like that when it comes to ST.