Now I know that its preseason still but I am starting to doubt our special teams... again. One of the pickups this offseason that I was excited about was the hiring of special teams coach Bobby April from the Bills, I thought he was going to fix our special teams problems finally and that the unit was going to be a strong point for our team. But lets look at the stats for the first 3 preseason games.
| Philadelphia Kick Returns | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NO | YDS | AVG | LG | TD | |
| Q. Demps | 2 | 69 | 34.5 | 47 | 0 |
| N. Allen | 1 | 15 | 15.0 | 15 | 0 |
| Team | 3 | 84 | 28.0 | 47 | 0 |
| Philadelphia Punt Returns | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NO | YDS | AVG | LG | TD | |
| C. Hall | 2 | 8 | 4.0 | 8 | 0 |
| Team | 2 | 10 | 5.0 | 8 | 0 |
| Kansas City Kick Returns | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NO | YDS | AVG | LG | TD | |
| D. McCluster | 3 | 111 | 37.0 | 41 | 0 |
| J. Arenas | 2 | 35 | 17.5 | 20 | 0 |
| Team | 5 | 146 | 29.2 | 41 | 0 |
| Kansas City Punt Returns | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NO | YDS | AVG | LG | TD | |
| J. Arenas | 5 | 38 | 7.6 | 17 | 0 |
| D. McCluster | 2 | 19 | 9.5 | 14 | 0 |
| Team | 7 | 57 | 8.1 | 17 | 0 |
I thought Demps looked good on his 47 yard return but only had 22 on his other one. Allen 1 return for 15 yards, no thanks. McCluster burned us for an average of 37 yards per kick with a long of 41 which cant happen.
Eagles v. Bengals
| Philadelphia Kick Returns | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NO | YDS | AVG | LG | TD | |
| Q. Demps | 2 | 43 | 21.5 | 22 | 0 |
| A. Shipley | 1 | 14 | 14.0 | 14 | 0 |
| C. Hall | 1 | 11 | 11.0 | 11 | 0 |
| Team | 4 | 68 | 17.0 | 22 | 0 |
| Cincinnati Kick Returns | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NO | YDS | AVG | LG | TD | |
| A. Jones | 2 | 57 | 28.5 | 40 | 0 |
| Q. Cosby | 1 | 41 | 41.0 | 41 | 0 |
| B. Scott | 1 | 22 | 22.0 | 22 | 0 |
| Team | 4 | 120 | 30.0 | 41 | 0 |
| Philadelphia Punt Returns | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NO | YDS | AVG | LG | TD | |
| C. Hall | 3 | 6 | 2.0 | 5 | 0 |
| Team | 3 | 6 | 2.0 | 5 | 0 |
| Cincinnati Punt Returns | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NO | YDS | AVG | LG | TD | |
| A. Jones | 2 | 27 | 13.5 | 22 | 0 |
| Q. Cosby | 2 | 7 | 3.5 | 7 | 0 |
| Team | 4 | 34 | 8.5 | 22 |
0 |
We allowed two Cincinnati returns for 40 yards, not good. Chad Hall averaged 2 yards per punt return, sorry Chad hope you make the practice squad. Also, I'm pretty sure this is the game where Demps got called for interfering with the fair catch for a dumb penalty which can't happen.
| Jacksonville Kick Returns | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NO | YDS | AVG | LG | TD | |
| D. Karim | 4 | 153 | 38.3 | 68 | 0 |
| S. McGee | 3 | 104 | 34.7 | 46 | 0 |
| Team | 7 | 257 | 36.7 | 68 | 0 |
| Philadelphia Kick Returns | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NO | YDS | AVG | LG | TD | |
| C. Hall | 3 | 63 | 21.0 | 24 | 0 |
| Q. Demps | 1 | 18 | 18.0 | 18 | 0 |
| Team | 4 | 81 | 20.3 | 24 | 0 |
| Jacksonville Punt Returns | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NO | YDS | AVG | LG | TD | |
| S. McGee | 2 | 2 | 1.0 | 10 | 0 |
| Team | 2 | 2 | 1.0 | 10 | 0 |
| Philadelphia Punt Returns | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NO | YDS | AVG | LG | TD | |
| C. Hall | 2 | 14 | 7.0 | 10 | 0 |
| Team | 2 | 14 | 7.0 | 10 | 0 |
We got burned here on kickoff for a 68 yard and a 46 yard return and even if you remove those two returns, Karim and McGee both average close to 30 yards per return. Nothing good to say about our returns.
All of these stats are copied from ESPN so sorry if the formatting looks a little off.
So is it time to start worrying about Special Teams? We've been burned for a 40+ yard return in each game so far and gave up a 68 yard return to Jacksonville. The tackling needs improvement and we have been giving up penalties. Demps is averaging 26 yards per return in the preseason which isn't terrible but its certainly not great. Take punt returns with a grains of salt because DeSean will be back there returning punts during the regular season (I don't care if you are worried about him getting injured he has the opportunity to get into the endzone with every return). Personally, I thought we were gonna get better than this when we signed Bobby April but then again its only the Preseason so hopefully the unit will pick up their game by the time the Packers come to town.
So what do you all think? Is Special Teams going to continue to be an area of concern this season?
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