The Opening Drive 10/3: Friday Special Teams Analysis
Punt coverage meltdown and finding some juice at returner.
Welcome in, and happy Friday. With the end of the week, you know where we turn—we go back and dust off the All-22 tape and dig into the special teams performances from the week before to check if the groups are hindering or helping. I think we all know the answer to this one.
The Browns didn’t do anything to severely help themselves with special teams against the Lions, but they did hurt themselves again by allowing a massive punt return touchdown. For the year, the Browns collective special teams are among the worst in EPA and it’s a very concerning trend over the last few seasons.
Big plays like blocked kicks, missed kicks, and long punt returns will end up hindering your performance in this field and the Browns have made more crushing special teams mistakes this season than the contrary. As we know, the margin for error on special teams is razor thin. The details matter more than ever and the Browns being a team who has to win on those margins and continuing to struggle with consistency in special teams is a big problem. Where other teams like the Bucs, Bills, and Rams have more firepower in other areas to overcome it, the Browns do not. They have to win these battles weekly and right now they are not.
Let’s dig into the film and details from each unit.
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Punt
For the day I thought Corey Bojorquez punted the football better than last week and averaged 44.9 yards per punt. The Browns either got down the return man in five yards or less or forced a fair catch on six of the seven punts. The coverage was fine and had everything the Lions tried to do boxed in. Then the big mistake happened.
It would appear based on Bojorquez’s reaction he didn’t kick this one anywhere near where he wanted to kick it, the coverage is spread across the field like they expected a middle kick, and then some effort was bad on the play because there was a belief the ball was going out of bounds. All of it adds up to poor efforts across the board and a 65 yard punt return touchdown allowed.
Bubba Ventrone talked about the effort this week. “Yeah. Honestly, like as a coach, it’s disappointing to see that effort on the play. Grant clearly felt like the ball went out of bounds. He stopped really early in the play, you could hear the crowd kind of like uproar. The ball was hit very close to the sideline, no excuse at all to stop on the play though. We got to finish that, and he understands that.”
These mistakes are just so crushing and this one in particular ended the game making it 27-10.
Punt Return
There were a slew of fair catches from DeAndre Carter in this one but not the type that left yardage on the field like the week before. Three kicks were fair caught deep in Browns territory and another went out of bounds. Another near disaster struck on this one in the second quarter where Carter was running up to field the ball and collided with Dom Jones (37) who was trying to block his man from the”gunner” alignment. Jones has to hear the “FIRE” call and get away from his area. This happens quickly but if there is no reaction from hearing the call, as we see here, then the collision can happen. The Browns were lucky to avoid disaster.
It appears Isaiah Bond will return punts this week but Ventrone left the door open. “Yeah, IB is definitely an option. We’ll have a real practice tomorrow and we’ll work through that. So, we’ll see who else is available.” He continued to talk about how Bond is preparing for the role: “I think he’s starting to track the ball better, and he’s been catching the ball both off the jugs and off live foot consistently since he’s been here. So, he works at it, he’s a very hard worker, he’s a smart kid, obviously has a very good skill set relative to his speed. So, when he gets the ball, he can be dangerous.”
Kickoff and Kickoff Return
Not trying to pile onto Carter, who is now hurt, but some of his return choices as far as pathway are baffling to me. Here he tries to run laterally and get out to the wide side and his blockers are not preparing for that choice. It’s an easy tackle.
On another kickoff later he passes up a really wide cut to his right to blindly follow into the madness the Lions have formed to his left.
Here is the full return.
The Browns kickoff team was fine for most of the day but they still keep over-running some of these returns. Too many guys taking poor angles past the ball-carriers pathway and running themselves out of the play. The job isn’t to just run your lane, it is to be a part of the tackle. They are fortunate RayShawn Jenkins (5) got a piece of his foot or it could have popped past the kicker.
Field Goal
The Browns protection was much cleaner in this one on their PAT attempt and then the 33 yarder. The long kick was where protection was concerning last week, especially off the left side, but they cleaned that up well this week. Technique from Harold Fannin Jr. was much better.
Field Goal Block
The Browns had a couple chances to get a hand on the deep kicks (48 and 58 yards) from Jake Bates. They just narrowly missed. If they sell out on more of these they will block a couple more kicks this year. Also, the voodoo Bates puts on this ball is insane. It moved like three times to stay inside the right upright.
Overall Special Teams Grade: (D) Big plays allowed and the minor details were poor.
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