Many on here have blasted Nugent, saying he doesn't have the leg to bury the ball on kickoffs. I've long suspected Simmons is telling him not to, relying on Special Teams speed to tackle the returner short instead of just giving them the 20 yd line. Now, with the new rule this year bringing touchbacks out to the 25, I suspect burying the deep inside or out the back of the end zone is not going to be the plan for many teams. Giving them a quarter of the field..... no thanks.
(07-27-2016, 09:32 AM)Sled21 Wrote: [ -> ]Many on here have blasted Nugent, saying he doesn't have the leg to bury the ball on kickoffs. I've long suspected Simmons is telling him not to, relying on Special Teams speed to tackle the returner short instead of just giving them the 20 yd line. Now, with the new rule this year bringing touchbacks out to the 25, I suspect burying the deep inside or out the back of the end zone is not going to be the plan for many teams. Giving them a quarter of the field..... no thanks.
Simmons has said he tells Nugent when to boot it and when to kick it short. It depends on who's returning the ball. Simmons is usually confident in our coverage team getting down there and preventing the ball from getting to the 20.
Sounds like we will depend on our ST tackling more than ever this year.
Not scared, but if we had a different ST coach and worse ST players i would be.
Teams that were bad at tackling and don't have much speed, this could hurt them bad with this rule.
BTW, never had a problem with Nuge's leg strength...