Every year, the Dallas Morning News ranks the special teams units of each NFL team. This year, in this article, you’ll see that the Packers ended up tied for 7th. That is a significant improvement over recent years and a lot of the credit ought to go to Mike Stock. As we’ve said previously on packergeeks.com, Stock has done a great job bringing along two young kickers as well as improving our overall coverage and return units. Congrats to Stock for a job well done. Also, congrats to TT and McCarthy for recognizing the importance of special teams (TT for acquiring quality special teams players and McCarthy for letting Stock do his job).
February 11, 2008 at 9:52 pm |
There’s plenty of room for improvement, particularly on the kickoff/punt coverage units. In 3 of the 4 losses this season, the Packers’ Special Teams played a significant role, and not in a good way:
Week 16: Packers at Bears
First punt: fumbled. Second punt: blocked. Fourth put goes 9 yards. Fifth punt blocked, recovered for a TD.
Week 13: Packers at Cowboys.
The Cowboys had 12 drives. Two of them started inside the Cowboys’ 30 yard line.
Championship Game: Giants at Packers
The Giants had 12 drives. Two of them started inside the Giants’ 20 yard line; two others started inside the 30.
To be fair, Special teams had their good moments as well, most notably the Week 1 game vs. the Eagles. They may be improved, but they’ve got plenty of room to improve more…