Kick coverage

[Jeepercreepermd]

I haven’t looked into the stats for the Ravens kickoff coverage teams but to the eye, it seems like every game we allow a return that gets a broken tackle away from turning into something huge.
To me, it seems like the thinking is to get Tucker to place the ball somewhere just infront of the goal line so it forces a return and hopefully the coverage team can get a tackle and pin them deep. It just doesn’t seem like it’s working all that well though and I could be wrong if stats say otherwise. It seems like one of those analytics decisions to me.
Any thoughts?

[jhoff66]

Put the damn ball in the endzone every time. No need to risk a return when are D is playing well and offense controls the ball. Just asking for problems every time there is a return.

[organizedchaos21]

I haven’t looked into the stats for the Ravens kickoff coverage teams but to the eye, it seems like every game we allow a return that gets a broken tackle away from turning into something huge.
To me, it seems like the thinking is to get Tucker to place the ball somewhere just infront of the goal line so it forces a return and hopefully the coverage team can get a tackle and pin them deep. It just doesn’t seem like it’s working all that well though and I could be wrong if stats say otherwise. It seems like one of those analytics decisions to me.
Any thoughts?

81 kickoffs, 49 TBs (60%). 1 FC, 1 caught and immediately stepped out. That leaves 30 kickoffs that were returned.

13 were returned past the 25, including 1 for a TD. Most of the short returns came prior to the first Bengals game (11 of the 16). Indeed, Tomlin mentioned in his post-game press conference that he chose to kick to start OT mainly due to the fantastic kick coverage! All 13 of the "long" returns came during/after that Bengals game. Even the "short" returns are mostly getting back to the 25: Rams to the 24, Texans to the 23, Bengals to the 24. Seattle was the last team to struggle to break even on KR, with returns to the 20 and to the 8 (after a penalty).

I agree it's probably time to put the ball into the EZ. I'm more curious what happened to the coverage unit. When did Elliott get hurt? I think the combination of losing Elliott (of whom @Abukari would tweet out weekly examples of kickoff coverage carnage, link), Trawick, and Bethel may have caused their performance to plummet.

[jhoff66]

81 kickoffs, 49 TBs (60%). 1 FC, 1 caught and immediately stepped out. That leaves 30 kickoffs that were returned.

13 were returned past the 25, including 1 for a TD. Most of the short returns came prior to the first Bengals game (11 of the 16). Indeed, Tomlin mentioned in his post-game press conference that he chose to kick to start OT mainly due to the fantastic kick coverage! All 13 of the "long" returns came during/after that Bengals game. Even the "short" returns are mostly getting back to the 25: Rams to the 24, Texans to the 23, Bengals to the 24. Seattle was the last team to struggle to break even on KR, with returns to the 20 and to the 8 (after a penalty).

I agree it's probably time to put the ball into the EZ. I'm more curious what happened to the coverage unit. When did Elliott get hurt? I think the combination of losing Elliott (of whom @Abukari would tweet out weekly examples of kickoff coverage carnage, link), Trawick, and Bethel may have caused their performance to plummet.

I still see no reason the give the opposing team a chance for a big return whether we are executing or not. The risk does not out weight the reward of pinning them deeper behind the 20 to me. With how the offense operates and the defense has been playing this past winning streak there should be no fear that someone is going to go 75 yards on us everytime.

[JimZipCode]

Yeah, our ST coach is not the brightest – don't even get me started with comparing him to Rosburg

Not really fair IMO to compare our rookie ST coach, with Rosburg who was well established as one of the best in the business even before he joined the Ravens.

I mean, I get it, one guy is succeeding the other, of course we'll compare them. And "the standard is the standard". But Horton is years away from being as good as JR was. If he ever is. That was a big loss this past offseason.