Thoughts on The Punt Returner

MGNation92 · October 3, 2018

I’m sure I’m not the first person to think this, but after 1.5 seasons of watching Darden return punts, I think it may be time to let Brewer do it full time.

Re-watching the LaTech game and seeing the muffed punt(AT THE 5 YARD LINE) is the straw that broke the camels back for me. Darden is electric with the ball in his hands, but he seems to make a mistake like this every other game. I get the homerun potential, but I’d rather have consistency and intelligence when it comes to returns. Not saying Brewer is the answer, but I’m not sure I can trust Darden back there anymore.

Aldo · October 3, 2018

Darden is our best punt returner period. Through 5 games and last season, no one else has as many long punt returns over 20 yards as Darden and ODU's Darrell Brown in Conference USA. He averaged the most yards per return last season on the team, and would be leading this season if it weren't for Brewer's Arkansas return.

Let him work it out. He's a sophomore. We'll continue to see him as a punt returner.

Edited October 3, 2018 by Aldo

UNTexas · October 3, 2018

47 minutes ago, MGNation92 said:

I’m sure I’m not the first person to think this, but after 1.5 seasons of watching Darden return punts, I think it may be time to let Brewer do it full time.

Re-watching the LaTech game and seeing the muffed punt(AT THE 5 YARD LINE) is the straw that broke the camels back for me. Darden is electric with the ball in his hands, but he seems to make a mistake like this every other game. I get the homerun potential, but I’d rather have consistency and intelligence when it comes to returns. Not saying Brewer is the answer, but I’m not sure I can trust Darden back there anymore.

Ya think!!! We win if he didn't fumble. He should have let it go. My word that was bad.

MGNation92 · October 3, 2018

20 minutes ago, Aldo said:

Let him work it out. He's a sophomore. We'll continue to see him as a punt returner.

I'm not sure if "working it out" means muffing a punt at our 5 yard line, but if that's gonna continue, I don't care if he's averaging 100 yards a return, I don't want him near the ball.

edcollopy · October 3, 2018

can't believe the coaches didn't pound that into his head before he ran out there....DON'T CATCH THE BALL! If they didn't, they share 50% of the bad result of that stupid decision.

UNTexas · October 3, 2018

1 minute ago, edcollopy said:

can't believe the coaches didn't pound that into his head before he ran out there....DON'T CATCH THE BALL! If they didn't, they share 50% of the bad result of that stupid decision.

Fair catch it at the 5 or let it go most likely in the endzone then to the 20? You let it go. Its ridiculous to attempt to catch it. Let it go, win the game...

MeanGreenTexan · October 3, 2018

36 minutes ago, UNTexas said:

Ya think!!! We win if he didn't fumble. He should have let it go. My word that was bad.

There are about at least 5 more of those plays.

Ejiya's late hit, extending a drive that was stopped at 4th down & a mile, effectively turning the tide of the game.
That long 3rd-down Circus catch over Johnson
The Easly fumble
The first missed FG
The blocked FG

So no, not 100% on Darden.

UNTexas · October 3, 2018

Just now, MeanGreenTexan said:

There are about at least 5 more of those plays.

Ejiya's late hit, extending a drive that was stopped at 4th down & a mile, effectively turning the tide of the game.
That long 3rd-down Circus catch over Johnson
The Easly fumble
The first missed FG
The blocked FG

So no, not 100% on Darden.

Special Teams as a whole failed entirely. So we lost 1/3 of the game. They were sloppy and played like they have never been coached before.

I'd say the entire team played sloppy in the 2nd, 3rd & 4th quarters.

Aldo · October 3, 2018

20 minutes ago, MGNation92 said:

I'm not sure if "working it out" means muffing a punt at our 5 yard line, but if that's gonna continue, I don't care if he's averaging 100 yards a return, I don't want him near the ball.

I get it. He's not using his head. He'll not fair catch a ball when it's at the 30, but he tries it at the 5. Can't be afraid of the ball or he needs better awareness. But it's all about practice.

Once the ball is securely in his hands, though, he gives us better field position than anyone else.

Mo Green · October 3, 2018

What is frustrating is the line drive soccer style kick's that they don't catch & then to watch the muff at the 5. Frustrating, needs coaching really badly on the thought process of PRs !

MGNation92 · October 3, 2018

27 minutes ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

There are about at least 5 more of those plays.

Ejiya's late hit, extending a drive that was stopped at 4th down & a mile, effectively turning the tide of the game.
That long 3rd-down Circus catch over Johnson
The Easly fumble
The first missed FG
The blocked FG

So no, not 100% on Darden.

Not this game. If you notice in my original post, I said it's happened several times where he has made really stupid plays on punt returns. It's been fairly consistent in that you can count on him at least making one mistake every other game, and in this instance, it was a huge reason we lost.

97and03 · October 3, 2018

Pretty sure Brewer muffed one in the first game.

The fumble was a matter of bad mechanics - you can clearly see it bounce off his shoulder pads before it even gets to his hands. This has to be fixed no matter where he is on the field or it will continue to cost the team. Then of course there is the decision-making skills of when to catch or not.

I want to criticize Biagi for doing so many interviews, but that publicity was nearly priceless for the university. But then two games later the ST unit seems to fall apart...

Edited October 3, 2018 by 97and03

FirefightnRick · October 3, 2018

2 hours ago, edcollopy said:

can't believe the coaches didn't pound that into his head before he ran out there....DON'T CATCH THE BALL! If they didn't, they share 50% of the bad result of that stupid decision.

Should have never been sent out to return it in the first place. There was 34 seconds left. What are you going to do at the 10 with 29 seconds?

Rick

scratch1976 · October 3, 2018

Exactly! should have never been sent out there...so many mistakes in that game...we gave that game away!

emmitt01 · October 3, 2018

We scored 21 points in the first quarter...SIX the rest of the way.

The muffed punt was bad, the FG attempts were bad, the penalties were bad...but the offensive play calling (especially when #45 was pass rushing with reckless abandon) was HORRIBLE.

meangreenlax · October 3, 2018

If you muff a punt at the 5, you need to sit on the bench.

Yes it was only one error out of many, but it was a huge one.

FirefightnRick · October 3, 2018

Saturday nights gift to La Tech reminded me of another bad decision made on a punt return in 1994 against Ok State, only it was the opposite.

The Mean Green, who were FCS at the time were whuppin the pokes the whole game but as was usually the case their depth started to catch us. Late in the game and while holding onto a 4 point lead with maybe 2:30 to go we forced the Cowpokes to punt from around their 40 to 48 I’m gonna say? And Simon doesn’t send anyone out to return the punt...at all.

The ball is a high short punt and comes down around our 25 or so and hits and starts rolling. It was that crappy old Astro turf that was hard as you can imagine and it starts rolling like a watermelon. And it rolls...and rolls.....and rolls and there’s no one in green to stop it and OSU stops it on the 1 millimeter. You’ve never seen a ball marked closer to the goal line.

We run it three times to try and gain some space and OSU stone walls all three attempts and calls all three time outs and on 4th Simon elects to take a safety. Now we’re only up by 2 points and punting away with under 2 minutes to go and OSU starts inside their 30 or so, makes a couple of first downs and kicks a 40 something yard long FG to win it as time expired.

Had there been anyone to jump on the ball and stop it from rolling from a knee position we win that game.

Another sickening long drive home.

Rick

Green Lantern · October 4, 2018

3 hours ago, FirefightnRick said:

Should have never been sent out to return it in the first place. There was 34 seconds left. What are you going to do at the 10 with 29 seconds?

Rick

Exactly. When I saw Darden lined up back there, I turned to my buddies and said “What are we doing? Nothing good can come from fielding this or even having a guy close to this ball. It’s a disaster waiting to happen” .

Horrible situational awareness from a usually well coached team.

It was the game’s catastrophic moment.

KRAM1 · October 4, 2018

3 hours ago, FirefightnRick said:

Should have never been sent out to return it in the first place. There was 34 seconds left. What are you going to do at the 10 with 29 seconds?

Rick

The “Drive” comes to mind, but I do agree with your thoughts.

Mike Jackson · October 4, 2018

Fair catch a ball at the 10 yard line or inside of it you are too brain dead to do the job. Any coach should forgive a mistake in the effort to make right play. But a fair catch inside the 10 yard line is not trying to make play. It is a high school level mistake. Focus on developing his as WR. He will be more important in that role next year. Have him work on punts in spring next year and fall camp. Our offense isn't struggling so field position is not that big of a deal. At best he might be worth an extra 10 yards of field position on a punt return on average. He isn't even as good as the best punt returners we had under McCarney.