Field Position Football
Bumped. Welcome back 66. GO BRUINS. -N
Austin receiving a punt. Photo Credit: dabruins07 (flickr)
To me, the key for this year will be whether we can force the other team to start each of its offensive series deep in its own territory. Said another way, we will need to play "field position football".
It's something we did not do, last year -- and we paid for it, dearly.
For the last couple of years, often to disprove the fallacy that the offense was on the field so little time that the defense got tired, I looked very carefully at the drive charts of each game. As some of my prior posts, and those of Fox, show -- the D often came out and gave up yards from the very first time it was on the field. I don't want to revisit that debate.
But, the one thing that was clear from those drive charts was that the D rarely came on the field with the opposition pinned back in its own territory. Quite to the contrary. The D was often faced with an opponent starting out somewhere between its own 30 and 40 yard line, or because of turnovers, somewhere in our territory. With great field position, our opponents could open up their offenses in ways they would not were they starting out inside their own 20 yard lines.
I think the most disappointing cause for this was our absolute inability to kick off into the end zone. With kicks fielded on the 10 or 15, our opponents often got returns between the 30 and 40. It wasn't bad coverage -- a ball kicked to the one and returned 15 or 20 yards would be just fine with me. More after the jump.
So, step one on our path to a better season needs to be using our kicks as weapons not invitations to meet us somewhere near mid-field.
Enough has been said about our inability to move the ball consistently last year -- and our inability to keep it. We will be much better this year and this, too, will be a key to our season.
I really don't expect an explosive, high scoring offense. I expect an adequate offense.
But, if our offense and special teams can give our D decent starting field position, I think we will be in most games.
And, if we are in them, I expect to win some that the outsiders predict we will lose.
sjh
PS. Sorry, I've just not had the time to go back and do the empirical research to support this post -- so it is a commentary rather than a report. I would have preferred to come with numbers, which is the BN way, but I've been way too busy to do my research. And, I wanted to warm up my fingers. It's been a while since I've posted and I have to get the hang of doing it, again. Summer is over. It's time to rock.
This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of BruinsNation's (BN) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of BN's editors.
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Well said 66
I was thinking the same thing. If the Offense can be patient and not make a lot of mistakes – no turnovers – I think we can rely on our Defense to keep giving them opportunities (this time.) Three and outs are going to happen. There is going to be an offensive learning curve in this game because our Offense is young and their Defense is unknown. Expect it. We may not need a high score to win this game.
Stats
66, your point is well taken. Here are some statistics about our:
As you can see, our average kickoff was only 60 yards…which means they are fielding the ball at the 10. Not only that, but we only had 1 touchback all season. I haven’t found anything about average field position yet, but I will post it once I do.
Go Bruins.
in a bad season, the kick offs were one of the most frustrating things to see week in and week out...
It killed me watching the opposition catching the ball with a running start at the 10/15 yard line. I think what put the cherry on top of my frustration last year on the kicking off was that Texas Tech basically finds a FG kicker off the street during a halftime gimmick and we can’t find anyone to get the ball into the damn endzone!
Agree with 66, a team/defense with an improved but very young O can benefit greatly from the field position battle. Good news is , from everything I read, that Locke has looked impressive during camp.
Free Brandon Wood!
Coverage units
Our kickoffs were short, and our coverage units on punts and kickoffs were terrible last year. Add in the turnovers and we had a molotov cocktail that created field position mayhem.
Short kick-offs
I wonder if the BALL has anything to do with the short kick-offs. Yes, the ball.
Terry Donoghue made the team use a new football during our kick-offs. A new football doesn’t travel as far as one that has been properly worn in, and it can make a big difference. Most universities allow their kicker to soften-up the football they will be using. Many of these kickers go as far as putting the football in a dryer (running it all night) to soften them up.
So, if anyone knows, I’d be curious to know Neu’s policy on kick-off balls.
We're going to see major improvement this year with Jeff Locke handling the kickoffs
Watching this kid in camp, he’s got a huge leg on him. His punts were reminiscent of Perez and does not look to have any problem kicking it through the end zone on kickoffs. (his senior year of high school he had 47 touchbacks on 54 kickoffs). Though the coverage units will still have to actually be able to stop the return guy when they bring it out….

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