Are the punt return yards getting in Ryan's head?

[cacksman]

Ryan has not been as good as he's been in years past. Sure, they aren't giving up punt return yards because of the hang time but like others have said, it isn't helping us any.

Also, in past years he would be placing those balls inside the 7 yard line, instead of the 15 like he was today. This is not the first time I've noticed Ryan's punting, it's been going on for weeks now.

 

[seahawks08]

Whatever it is giving the scheme, we would be better off than a guying doing a fair catch at our 40 yards versus, trying to beat coverage from 60 or 65 yards out. We could create more turnovers on punt returns when that happens. I think we should continue to focus on having a longer hang time and distance or mix it up, so that the person who is catching has to always adjust. Otherwise it is lame.

 

[chris98251]

I'm wondering if the change is also associated with the weather, wet or icey feilds benefit the return guy, trying to change directions on a slippery surface is harder for the defenders.

 

[HawkWow]

I'm wondering if the change is also associated with the weather, wet or icey feilds benefit the return guy, trying to change directions on a slippery surface is harder for the defenders.

Exactly. The return man / WR / back etc know which way they are going, the defender doesn't and has to adjust to their movement, then recover.

We are fat and happy with Ryan (and Haushka).

 

[themunn]

Giving up an extra 5 net yards per punt is fine because the deviation is low, you know that with a Ryan unt the opposition is always going to start 35-45 yards from where you punted. By comarison, AZs punter booked it every time, and although two of them pinned us back in the 10, Tate returned another few for massive gains, with the risk of breaking a massive gain.

It makes sense, would you rather the opposition started on their 40 every drive or on their 30 4 times and your 40 twice

 

[CortezKennedyfan]

It's all scheme. It's not "getting in his head."

The scheme usually works because Ryan usually isn't punting from near the end zone like he was today.

 

[AgentDib]

By comparison, AZs punter booked it every time, and although two of them pinned us back in the 10, Tate returned another few for massive gains, with the risk of breaking a massive gain. It makes sense, would you rather the opposition started on their 40 every drive or on their 30 4 times and your 40 twice

In your example there is no net difference in punting (-10*4 + 20*2 = 0), so of course it makes sense to minimize the deviation when there is no trade off and you are the better team. However, what actually happened was that the Cards punter had much better net punting than we did tonight even after Tate's massive gains were included. Our conservatism lowered the risk of extremely bad outcomes but at the cost of completely eliminating the chance of good outcomes.

I contend that nine punts for 36 net yards/punt would be viewed as a poor overall coverage performance if Ryan was booming it and they were returning them 10-15 yards per punt.

 

[MidwestHawker]

There has been a noticeable drop in Ryan's performance this year. If it's scheme-based then I certainly wish that Pete would just cut him loose on the longer punts from our own end; our cover men, obviously Lane in particular, have done a nice job and there's every reason to think that they could manage to contain returners. But I realize that Pete has some conservative game-planning ideas that are less than ideal and that he's going to cling to those like cold grim death.

 

[seabowl]

If Ryan is punting the ball 36 yds and the opponent is having great field position after no return, I'd suggest our 3 and outs are more to blame than Ryan's punting.

36 yards net is good for 31st place in the NFL this season. For comparison, our opponent next week (Rams) is averaging 45 yards net per punt. That isn't a good comparison for us.

Of course the punting issues have been nowhere near as important as our offensive issues, but there are lots of other threads talking about why our offense is struggling.

How good would 36 yds be if Ryan was punting from the opponents 45?

Typically, we get a couple first downs before we are forced to punt...Ryan is asked to drop the ball inside the 20 more frequently than he is asked to boom a punt. I hope that doesn't change anytime soon.


There can't be many gauges more worthless than ranking punters based on distance. Ryan is one of the best punters in the game and we are fortunate to have him.

Your assesment of his being asked to drop the ball inside the 20 more frequently than he is asked to boom a kick is just incorrect. Of his 68 punts this year 25 have been inside the 20. Also if you think he ranks high on the inside the 20 punts he does not. He is ranked 14th (middle of the pack).

What I think many of us thought was an incredible job this year with our punts seems now not to be so good and likely hurting us with field position.

 

[getnasty]

I think there thinking is when you have great defense why give risk the chance on giving up a cheap TD on special teams. On days like today when we can't move the ball and the defense starts on the 50 everytime its gonna be hard to watch. It pissed me off today but I'll give up 8 yards a punt and role with our defense.

 

[themunn]

By comparison, AZs punter booked it every time, and although two of them pinned us back in the 10, Tate returned another few for massive gains, with the risk of breaking a massive gain. It makes sense, would you rather the opposition started on their 40 every drive or on their 30 4 times and your 40 twice

In your example there is no net difference in punting (-10*4 + 20*2 = 0), so of course it makes sense to minimize the deviation when there is no trade off and you are the better team. However, what actually happened was that the Cards punter had much better net punting than we did tonight even after Tate's massive gains were included. Our conservatism lowered the risk of extremely bad outcomes but at the cost of completely eliminating the chance of good outcomes.

I contend that nine punts for 36 net yards/punt would be viewed as a poor overall coverage performance if Ryan was booming it and they were returning them 10-15 yards per punt.

Yes, I used that example to make the point about deviation.
You can't really use last night as an example given Ryan had a 27 yard punt downed at the 13 and a 28 yard punt downed at the 17.
Those were his shortest net punts. Arizona didn't start a single drive in Seatte territory (aside from the Turbin fumble) Arizona DID nearly start one drive in Seattle territory, when the holding penalty negated a return and put them back 10 yards further... but Ryan was punting from the Seattle 4 and the punt was actually his second longest of the game.
Seattle started twice in Arizona territory (aside from turnovers).
Even still, there were a couple of fair catches from Tate that he probably could have either let bounce or even taken out that started us inside our own 10.