Tag: punt

Rookie Saints linebacker carted off after ugly special teams collision

Rookie Saints linebacker Jaylan Ford was carted off the field after an ugly collision on special teams. Here’s to a full recovery for the young pro:

This is worse to see than any lopsided tally on the scoreboard. New Orleans Saints rookie linebacker Jalan Ford was carted off late in Sunday’s game with the Las Vegas Raiders after an ugly collision on special teams left him in a heap on the turf clutching his leg.

The Saints medical staff quickly attended to Ford and stabilized his leg in an air cast before helping him onto a cart, which carried him off the field. The team later announced he had been ruled out with a fibula injury.

You really hate to see young players dealt with serious injuries like this, especially so late in the season. Ford, a fifth-round pick in the 2024 NFL draft out of Texas, was just covering a punt return and trying to put positive plays on film when he and other players ran into each other, which resulted in the injury.

We’re rooting for Ford. He may be facing a difficult path back to the field in 2025.

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Steelers fans outraged over HC Mike Tomlin’s Week 17 coaching job

Outrage follows Mike Tomlin’s controversial Week 17 decisions against the Chiefs, showcasing passionate fan reactions.

Fans are outraged over the idea that Mike Tomlin gave up on the Steelers during the Week 17 contest against the Chiefs.

The Pittsburgh Steelers—like usual—started off extremely slow and gave the Patrick Mahomes-led Chiefs offense a 13-0 lead. Fans have often criticized Tomlin’s leadership for these slow starts to games, but his ability to rally the team in the second half has typically silenced the doubters.

However, Tomlin showcased a far different side of himself in the fourth quarter of the Week 17 contest: his urgency to throw in the towel.

With less than six minutes remaining—and down 19 points with all three timeouts—the Steelers could have scored a touchdown, forced a punt, scored another touchdown, and then used their last three timeouts to get the ball back with a little under two minutes remaining.

However, Tomlin signaled a white flag when he decided to punt the ball away on a potentially huge 4th-and-2.

Fans are understandably angered over Tomlin’s Week 17 decisions, and the Steelers head coach deserves all the criticism he is receiving. With that in mind, here are the most passionate fan reactions to Tomlin’s Week 17 coaching.

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3 Saints special teams aces recognized by Bill Belichick

New Orleans Saints players J.T. Gray, Anfernee Orji and Rashid Shaheed all made Bill Belichick’s first midseason team as standouts on special teams:

Former New England Patriots coach and eight-time Super Bowl champ Bill Belichick has quickly transitioned into the media landscape, with plenty of outlets competing for some of his time. His latest project is developing essentially an All-Pro Team halfway through the season called the All-Belichick Midseason Team.

The New Orleans Saints are represented three times on that list, all of whom play on special teams. J.T. Gray, Anfernee Orji and Rashid Shaheed all made the cut.

This is a major look for Orji. The young linebacker is looking to make a name in this league, and appearing on an All-NFL team created by the greatest coach of all time is certainly one way to do it. Belichick specifically highlighted Orji’s kickoff return coverage, even though Orji made it on the punt team. His 5 special teams tackles are among the most in the NFL.

Gray is a former All-Pro player on special teams. Coach called Gray, “a productive player ever since he’s came in the league.” He’s tied for the league lead with 7 special teams tackles, plus a blocked punt.

There were two kick returners on the team, and Shaheed was paired on this list with Cowboys’ returner KaVontae Turpin. Unfortunately, Shaheed’s injury will keep him from making the All-Pro team at the end of the season. His inclusion on this list shows you his trajectory, returning one punt for a touchdown in his six games this year.

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Dennis Allen chose to kick one of the NFL’s most cowardly punts since 1999

Dennis Allen has made history in yet another bad way, making the decision to kick one of the most cowardly punts since the last century:


New Orleans Saints head coach Dennis Allen has made history in yet another bad way, making the decision to kick one of the most cowardly punts since the last century.

Allen and the Saints decided to punt from the Los Angeles Chargers 47-yard line on fourth down with one yard to go. There were just over 11 minutes remaining in the first quarter while the two team were scoreless.

According to the Surrender Index, an advanced stat which contextualizes decisions to punt for down, distance, and other factors, this decision by the head coach earns an 8.96. That put it within the 95th percentile of the most cowardly punts of the 2024 season and inside the 91st percentile of all punts since 1999.

Yes, over two whole decades ago. It’s clear the Saints need to be more aggressive and sensible in situations like this, but that is just one of many things that have come to light to need fixing over recent weeks. They went into this game at 2-5 and will need every advantage to string wins together and salvage this season.

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WATCH: Taysom Hill forces a safety for the Saints on a botched punt

Taysom Hill made an immediate impact in his first game back from injury. He forced a safety for the Saints after the Chargers botched a punt:

The New Orleans Saints’ defense and special teams started off strong against the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 8, with their first score of the day coming on a forced safety.

Los Angeles botched the snap on their second punt of the day, and Taysom Hill, who recently returned from injury, forced the punter to cough up the ball after an attempted recovery. That caused the ball to skid out of the endzone for a New Orleans safety, giving them an early 2-0 lead.

The Saints have not had a safety since 2020, which came in their matchup against the Kansas City Chiefs. They will now look to build off their two point lead throughout the remainder of the matchup, and we will see if they can capitalize off of this rare occurrence.

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Orca bats seal 70 feet skyward in what remains a ‘punt’ for the ages

The astonishing scene is brought to mind by recent footage showing an orca “punting” a common murre 20 feet into the air.

Earlier this week we shared footage showing an orca “punting” a seabird nearly 20 feet into the air in California’s Monterey Bay.

While impressive, the scene was reminiscent of a more astonishing event documented nine years ago, involving an orca that used its flukes to fling a harbor seal at least 70 feet skyward.

The accompanying images were captured off Port Angeles, Wash., by Alisa Schulman-Janiger, a California-based killer whale researcher.

https://www.facebook.com/alisa.schulmanjaniger/posts/6547668058675012?ref=embed_post

“It’s still the most astounding thing I’ve seen,” Schulman-Janiger, co-founder of the California Killer Whale Project, told FTW Outdoors in 2023. “A momentous moment in my life.”

The event was also captured on video and the footage is posted below. The video description places the height of the seal at 80 feet.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=478672815636888

The male orca belongs to a family scientifically cataloged as the TO69s. The standout punter is TO69C, who was about 20 years old at the time.

The orca shown “punting” the common murre last Saturday is part of a family unit cataloged by the California Killer Whale Project as the CA51As, led by the matriarch, nicknamed Aurora.

Schulman-Janiger said those orcas were honing their skills for when it’s time to hunt seals or sea lions.

“They’re practicing for the pinnipeds when they do this,” she said. “They might smack them with their heads or flukes, but the big thing is to use their flukes to throw them into the air so they’ll be stunned when they come down.”

Orca ‘punts’ sea lion 20 feet into air as boaters watch in awe

Whale Watchers in California’s Monterey Bay spent Thanksgiving Day watching orcas showing a new pod member how to hunt sea lions.

Whale Watchers in California’s Monterey Bay spent part of Thanksgiving Day watching orcas showing a new pod member how to hunt sea lions.

One of the behaviors involved “punting” a sea lion “almost 20 feet in the air,” according to Monterey Bay Whale Watch.

The company explained via social media:

“Based on the behavior observed, this was clearly a training session for the new calf in the pod that is only several months old!

“Once they successfully killed a sea lion, the members of the pod took turns displaying attack maneuvers and behaviors to further instruct their newest pod member on how to hunt.”

The four orcas, or killer whales, belong to a family scientifically cataloged as the CA51As.

Striking images captured by Morgan Quimby show them participating in the hunt and the sea lion sailing through the air. (Click here to watch a harbor seal being punted 70 feet high.)

Monterey Bay Whale Watch added: “While it is hard to watch them hunt in this way, it is important to the survival of the pod. We got some amazing looks at this notoriously friendly pod as they practiced hunting techniques on the sea lion and slowed down towards the end of the encounter making close passes to the boat before prey sharing with one another.”

New orca calf participating in the hunt. Photo: ©Morgan Quimby Photography

The CA51As are transient killer whales, which prey almost exclusively on other marine mammals, including dolphins and baby gray whales.

Leading the hunt was the matriarch, CA51A, nicknamed Aurora. She’s the daughter of CA51, who was not present during the encounter.

Luke Fickell made another poor game-management decision during Wisconsin’s loss to Northwestern

Luke Fickell made another poor game-management decision during Wisconsin’s loss to Northwestern

The Wisconsin Badgers have issues this season, multi-faceted issues. One would be naive to point to one single thing or area on the team as the reason it sits at 5-5 and 3-4 in Big Ten play.

There are notable injuries, the offense has been downright bad, the defense isn’t dominant, the coaching seems suspect, and so on.

But one thing on that list that has hindered the team this season, and did so yet again during the 24-10 loss to Northwestern, is Luke Fickell’s game management.

The Ohio State loss was the most glaring example of this, with a field goal kicked from the OSU 1-yard line and a punt inside Buckeye territory. Overly conservative when the team needed the exact opposite.

Here is Saturday’s submission:

The answer to my question is one. It took Northwestern one play from scrimmage to get back to where Wisconsin punted from, and then eight more plays before it found the end zone and a 21-3 lead.

That is a punt Iowa can make, as it has the ugliest offense in the country and a top defense. Wisconsin’s offense may be ugly at the moment, but in no world should the team be punting on a 4th-and-3 from the opponents’ 42-yard-line.

These are the types of decisions Paul Chryst would take excess heat for, even though he was often doing it with the same Iowa recipe of a top defense and questionable offense. Moving forward with Fickell as head coach and the air raid in place, these decisions can’t be made.

We all hope the Badgers get to big games in the coming years. In those big games, they will likely be facing better teams with more talent. A coach must coach aggressively to pull those upsets, not like Fickell has in big moments this season.

Dennis Allen’s decision to punt reaches ‘99.5th percentile of cowardly punts’

Dennis Allen’s decision at the end of the third quarter reached the ‘99.5th percentile of cowardly punts’ during the 2023 season, per this metric:

Yeesh. Dennis Allen earned some boos from New Orleans Saints fans late in the third quarter during Sunday’s game with the Chicago Bears, choosing to punt on fourth-and-5 from the Chicago 40-yard line. The score was tied up 17-17.

And the decision drew criticism from the Surrender Index. A metric devised to rate punt decisions based on distance, field position, game score and clock timing, the Surrender Index is used to rate punts around the league based off how aggressive or cowardly they were. And Allen’s choice to punt in this situation hit the 99.5th percentile in the 2023 season, and the 98th percentile dating back to 1999.

It’s right in line for Allen, who would rather put the opposing offense in a tough spot and trust his defense to get a stop than risk a turnover on downs by his offense. Last season he graded out as one of the NFL’s most-cowardly decision-maker on fourth down.

But things worked out this time. Allen’s defense rallied to force their first punt of the afternoon and Rashid Shaheed returned it up to the Chicago 47-yard line. A couple of nice runs by Alvin Kamara and Taysom Hill got the Saints into scoring position, and Hill capped the drive by a touchdown pass to Juwan Johnson to take the lead. Allen’s decisions have gotten him burned before, but his conservative call worked out well this time.

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POLL: Which infamous Wisconsin punt was worse?

POLL: Which notorious Wisconsin punt was worse?

It’s time to start asking the hard-hitting questions.

Wisconsin forever was a program known for a strong running game, great defense and dominance of field position. Now with Luke Fickell as head coach and Phil Longo as offensive coordinator, we’re still waiting to see what the identity of the new program is.

That said, there was a decision in Saturday’s 24-10 loss to Ohio State that needs to be revisited. It transported us back into the ‘old Wisconsin’ mode, in a bad way.

The situation: No. 3 Ohio State leads 17-10 with less than 12 minutes left in the game. Wisconsin has the ball driving on the Ohio State 48 yard-line facing a 4th and 6. Again, the Badgers are playing one of the top teams in the country, trail by seven points and are past midfield.

The decision: Luke Fickell punted.

Narrator: It then took Ohio State a grand total of 1 play to return to where Wisconsin punted from. It was one of a few terrible game management decisions by Fickell on Saturday, the other being kicking a field goal from the Ohio State 1-yard-line entering halftime. It felt like Wisconsin was playing to keep the game close, not to win.

So, we ask the question…which infamous Wisconsin punt was worse?

Saturday, or the time Paul Chryst punted from the Minnesota 35 yard-line?

Vote on X @benzkenney. My vote is in for Saturday’s punt against Ohio State.