People sh*t on Freddie Swain as a punt returner because they’re morons who know about as much about football as Law does about not being stoned and drunk 24/7.
The blocking on punt returns is bad. It wouldn't matter if we had Dante Hall back there, you can’t do anything but fair catch when six defenders have you surrounded two yards away.
Kickoff return team is whatever because everyone just kicks the ball through the endzone anymore. Kick coverage has been pretty good when Evan decides to kick it short. Punt team has been outstanding.
We rarely block kicks anymore, but that’s pretty standard these days. Kickers are better than ever now and rarely kick it low enough to get blocked. And the spread punt formation has almost completely phased the punt block out of the game all together. They still happen on occasion, but nowhere near as frequently as before.
This was generally about what I was going to say.
1.We have good enough kickers
2. Punt coverage is good, Kickoff coverage is so so,but not many kicks get returned so you don;t notice it often.
3. Our kickoff return stinks b/c Cleve and Swain are not good at it. but we don;t return enough to really notice. Toney should be back there.
4. Swain does exactly what he is supposed to do as our punt returner. CATCH THE BALL. You can't have a return if you don;t catch the ball. He has not fumbled one yet and I don;t want him to start now. Is he a good returner when trying to return a kick? Not really, but the return team schemes are lacking. Keeping catching it Freddie and that is all that matters, especially running up and fair catching the short punts to save hidden yardage.
5. Blocking kicks or trying to block kicks is not in our playbook.
So generally speaking we are not going to win a game with special teams. So that being the case, lets not let special teams lose us a game.