Special Teams

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(12-06-2021, 11:31 AM)FastEddie Wrote: What has happened to the Bengals special teams? I used to expect Brandon Wilson to get at least one good runback per game. I know he's on IR but his replacements have not taken up the slack

Now We have Darius Phillips losing yards on every punt trying to run backwards rather than just taking a few yards.

Yesterday, Pooka Williams cost them yards every time he caught the ball on a kickoff. On the kickoff after the field goal to make it 9-0, the ball was going out of bounds and he picked it up and returned it to the 12. All he had to do was step out of bounds and catch the ball and it would have been at the 40. Or just let it go. There was 28 yards and it would have been great field position at the 40 but we had to start at the 12.

The special teams used to be one of the advantages on this team, now they seem to be a big liability. I saw Simmons on the sidelines a few times yesterday and he seemed pretty ticked off.

STs are still perfectly fine; our STs DVOA or whatever, was #2 coming into yesterday, so the real return (no pin intended) on play has been there.

To the first bold, Phillips has been doing that since his injury in '19; the worst vision imaginable. Now, while a ton of people gave him shit last game about the KO he fielded with his foot on the line, that's a fluke, once in a while sitch, so that's not a big deal. But yeah, athleticism aside, he is dreadful when it comes to vision.

The to the second, I think this was Pooka's audition with the big boys and he was a MASSIVE failure. I can't believe he was not only that bad, but that he didn't let the ball go OB on the second kickoff; it was literally a foot or two (from what I could see) from the OB line. Hell, go OB yourself and touch the ball, it'll still get moved to the 40 (like Cobb and some others have done a bunch of times).

Wouldn't be surprised at all if Pooka sits out the rest of the year (on PS) and they try someone else AGAIN at KR.

But yeah, not worried at STs on the whole; we still have a good unit from top to bottom and some players are outright elite (Harris, Evan, Morgan, even Huber is still superb).