Takeaways from today's game

andrew said:
Many coaches are risk adverse and will take the ball at the 25 rather than try to run it back from the 5. Just my guess.
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I'm sure that's true. As CPJ has said many times, he'd gladly give the ball to the other team at the 25 every time, rather than risk a long return – the long return is a big fear for coaches. So there's still the same incentive to kick the ball as far away from your goal as you can. I'm not sure that the ability to kick the ball into the endzone is any less valuable than it was before the rule change.
 
18in32 said:
I'm sure that's true. As CPJ has said many times, he'd gladly give the ball to the other team at the 25 every time, rather than risk a long return – the long return is a big fear for coaches. So there's still the same incentive to kick the ball as far away from your goal as you can. I'm not sure that the ability to kick the ball into the endzone is any less valuable than it was before the rule change.
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It's still valuable, for sure. But likely not quite as valuable as before, because we will now be able to "force" touchbacks without reaching the endzone depending on the opposing coach's strategy.
 
andrew said:
It's still valuable, for sure. But likely not quite as valuable as before, because we will now be able to "force" touchbacks without reaching the endzone depending on the opposing coach's strategy.
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But we're not 'forcing' them...? Just the opposite, the receiving team gets the option, not the kicking team. So if you have a great returner, you're in a stronger position (you can more easily defend against a great kick – say one that skies into the corner at the 1), because you can either take it at the 25 or try for the long return when that's likely. And it's the strong returners that kicking coaches are scared of. In other words, the defensive reward on KO's is tiny, the defensive risk is huge. The rule change doesn't change that dynamic, as far as I can tell.
 
gtrower said:
Defense looked good. Lots of penetration right off the snap - wreaked havoc and affected plays despite only the 1 sack.

Offense looks fine. TM16 still can’t sling it consistently but he’s gonna pick up a lot of third downs this year making LBs look silly. That INT was some bullshit.

Thought kickoffs were pretty solid actually. Not sure what all the whining is about there.

Overall I was happy. Shutouts are nothing to sneeze at regardless of competition. No major injuries. Keep this train moving onto week 2.
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The kickoffs were pretty low in my opinion. I expect our ACC opponents to be returning to the 35 or so if we don’t get it into the end zone.
 
18in32 said:
But we're not 'forcing' them...? Just the opposite, the receiving team gets the option, not the kicking team. So if you have a great returner, you're in a stronger position (you can more easily defend against a great kick – say one that skies into the corner at the 1), because you can either take it at the 25 or try for the long return when that's likely. And it's the strong returners that kicking coaches are scared of. In other words, the defensive reward on KO's is tiny, the defensive risk is huge. The rule change doesn't change that dynamic, as far as I can tell.
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They have the option to take it out of the endzone as well, and yet most (certainly not all) choose to take a knee if it's only a yard in. Likely many will choose to take a touchback now on kicks they would have been forced to return previously.

Look at it this way. Say a team was getting it into the endzone 50 percent of the time, and that resulted in a 40 percent touchback ratio. This season, that same team may continue to kick it into the endzone 50 percent of the time, but they may end up with a 60 percent touchback ratio.

You're right that the returning team gets the option, so in theory it shouldn't really help the kicking team. But coaches tend to be risk averse and make the "safe" decision even when it's the worse option. For example, many coaches will punt on 4th and short even though the numbers overwhelmingly favor going for it most of the time. I think the same thing will happen with them choosing to take touchbacks.
 
Oh, programs have gone from $5 to $10 this season.

Tennessee charges $10 for theirs, but gives you a coupon to get a bag of peanuts inside the stadium with the purchase. The coupon is genius because a lot of folks just plain forget or don't get them so it still ends up being a $10 program
 
How about Tariq Carpenter?

Kid looks awesome and made the hardest hit of the game on the very first play of the season. Lots to be excited about from our young players.
 
wesleyd21 said:
How about Tariq Carpenter?

Kid looks awesome and made the hardest hit of the game on the very first play of the season. Lots to be excited about from our young players.
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I think some folks watched a different game than I watched. Juanyeh Thomas has the potential to be our best kick returner on the flats, ever. I know it was first game, but he looked great. Not gonna blame him for losing the ball in the sun. I blame the noon kick for that.
 
JJacket said:
I think some folks watched a different game than I watched. Juanyeh Thomas has the potential to be our best kick returner on the flats, ever. I know it was first game, but he looked great. Not gonna blame him for losing the ball in the sun. I blame the noon kick for that.
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Yep. Juanyeh Thomas was pure entertainment.
Nice to FINALLY have a threat returning punts!
 
The kickoffs were
gtctcjb said:
I really struggle with the "kicking game is an embarrassment". What was so embarrassing today?
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The concern I have is I saw a lot of line drive kicks on kickoff. It’s hard to cover those since the returner has the ball while the coverage unit is still miles away. The kicks that weren’t line drives were so-so.

Alcon had a lot of fair catches, but I suspect that was a coaching decision. I think ACC teams would have returned a most of them.

Punting will be good. Not sure about the coverage at this point.

I’d agree that “Embarrassment” is overstating the situating, but I didn’t walk away without more concern than I would have liked.
 
coit said:
The kickoffs were pretty low in my opinion. I expect our ACC opponents to be returning to the 35 or so if we don’t get it into the end zone.
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bravejason said:
The concern I have is I saw a lot of line drive kicks on kickoff. It’s hard to cover those since the returner has the ball while the coverage unit is still miles away. The kicks that weren’t line drives were so-so.

Alcon had a lot of fair catches, but I suspect that was a coaching decision. I think ACC teams would have returned a most of them.

Punting will be good. Not sure about the coverage at this point.

I’d agree that “Embarrassment” is overstating the situating, but I didn’t walk away without more concern than I would have liked.
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gtctcjb said:
I really struggle with the "kicking game is an embarrassment". What was so embarrassing today? From memory:

- Most kickoffs were either fair caught or returned short of the 25 yard line (which is better than the fair catch)
- Our one punt was near 50 yards, net
- King was 4/4 on extra points and missed a field goal....from 50 yards...hardly a chip shot
- Davis made an XP and missed one.

After the game, CPJ said that King was the kicker moving forward. What was so bad?

If you are upset that King couldn't beat out Davis or that we haven't signed a better kicker, fine, but today's performance was not embarrassing. I saw today as the last piece of the competition between King and Davis and King won out. No more rotations in future games.
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For those who didn't get into the game early enough for warmups, Brenton hit a 60 yarder with decent height with maybe 5 yards to spare.
 
andrew said:
They have the option to take it out of the endzone as well, and yet most (certainly not all) choose to take a knee if it's only a yard in. Likely many will choose to take a touchback now on kicks they would have been forced to return previously.

Look at it this way. Say a team was getting it into the endzone 50 percent of the time, and that resulted in a 40 percent touchback ratio. This season, that same team may continue to kick it into the endzone 50 percent of the time, but they may end up with a 60 percent touchback ratio.

You're right that the returning team gets the option, so in theory it shouldn't really help the kicking team. But coaches tend to be risk averse and make the "safe" decision even when it's the worse option. For example, many coaches will punt on 4th and short even though the numbers overwhelmingly favor going for it most of the time. I think the same thing will happen with them choosing to take touchbacks.
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I definitely agree that coaches will play it safe and encourage returners to take the touchback.
 
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