Kick Off Coverage Needed… Badly.

One of the areas I want to see marked improvement in is our Special Teams play. Specifically, kick off coverage. Basically, we did average in our return game with our punt returning averaging 9.2 yards per attempt (that’s 1/3 of a yard better than the league average). Likewise on Kick off returns we were at the league average with 22 yards per attemp. In Punt coverage we did well last year, holding opponents to an average of less than 7 yards per punt return (that places us 5th in the NFL last year).

However, the stat that bothers me the most is our kick off coverage numbers. We ranked 31st in the league in average yards allowed on kick off returns (with the Raiders as the only other team to allow more average yards on returns). We allowed almost 5 extra yards per return than the average kick off coverage teams last year.

This is pretty serious when you multiply that by the 55 kick returns we faced last year. It means that we gave up 275 yards more than the average NFL team in 2006.

Talk about pressure on your defense!

Opposing offenses had to traverse less ground to score, and more importantly they had better shots at pinning us deep inside our side of the field.

I bring this up, because I’ve heard several interviews with new Special Teams Coach Scott O’Brien. However, most of the questions poised to O’Brien revolve around our returners (i.e. Morgan, Clark and Hixon), rather than the unglamorous aspects of kick off coverage. It might not be where the fame and fortune is, but coverage can make or break a game and it needs to be addressed this year.

On a positive note, I really like what I’ve heard from O’Brien. He does not scheme and use wacky tactics, he does indepth study of his own players and then tries to put them into a position where they can be playmakers. That’s the kind of sensible coaching I can believe in.

Some related links for your reading pleasure:

Rocky Mountain News article on O’Brien’s in Cleveland: FULL STORY

CBS4 Story on Keith Burns in his new coaching job: FULL STORY

Getting to Know Brian Clark on DenverBroncos.com: FULL STORY

Getting to Know Quincy Morgan on DenverBroncos.com: FULL STORY

Background on Domenik Hixon at Rocky Mountain News: FULL STORY

Rocky Mountain News article on special team player Paul Smith: FULL STORY