Fair catch at the 10! And it will be placed at the 25 yard line. New rule.

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

somewhat on topic -- how many times have we seen this from the Cardinals:

1. playing a tight game and the opponent scores a TD to tie or take the lead in Q4. Card offense really needs to answer.
2. On the kickoff, the returner catches it 3 yards deep......... and decides to return it. Tackled at the 17 yard line.
3. Oh yeah, holding penalty too.
4. Critical drive starts inside the 10 vs the 25

so the good news: we wont see that again

What makes you say that? If we weren’t fair catching it 3 yards deep in the endzone that same guy certainly isn’t fair catching it at the 10!

 

[SissyBoyFloyd]

football karma said: somewhat on topic -- how many times have we seen this from the Cardinals:

1. playing a tight game and the opponent scores a TD to tie or take the lead in Q4. Card offense really needs to answer.
2. On the kickoff, the returner catches it 3 yards deep......... and decides to return it. Tackled at the 17 yard line.
3. Oh yeah, holding penalty too.
4. Critical drive starts inside the 10 vs the 25

so the good news: we wont see that again

Been saying this for awhile. I hate the idea of returning kicks. The penalty you get on half of them can never be made up. It is just not a winning gamble unless your offense is so bad that it is your best near-end of game hail Mary type play.

I love this new rule, and it will prevent lots of injuries.

 

[Fitz4Ever]

This is not good and here is why.

They changed kickoffs to avoid collisions..which is fine. Something like 90% of kickoffs are touchbacks. Teams countered with a strategy of angling kickoffs/short kicking...which has risks for them. If you kick the ball out of bounds it goes to the 40 etc.

This rule takes ALL the strategy out of special teams completely. If a team is able to pin a team back with a fair catch kickoff...they should be able to. How many scenarios is this even avoiding?? All it does is take all decision making out of the KR hands...."do I catch this and try to break it or let it go out of bounds".

 

[WisconsinCard]

Reduce concussions, retain commercial/advertising revenue. ********. If this weren't the case, they'd simply end kickoffs. There's no point to "the kickoff" when 99% will be out of the back of the end zone or fair catches.

The commercial's would still exit, at the change of possession. There would just be longer break.

 

[BritCard]

Yeah this sucks. They must have gone heavy on the hookers and blow at the owners meeting this time.

I don't like it, however there is some room for innovation here.

You can't fair catch a ball the has already touched the ground. It opens up more pooch kicks.

Also there has been little skill in kick offs, you just hoof it down the middle as hard as possible, mostly for touchbacks. A kicker that can direct the ball away from the returner but have it stop in bounds will have added value.

 

[Fitz4Ever]

Yeah this sucks. They must have gone heavy on the hookers and blow at the owners meeting this time.

I don't like it, however there is some room for innovation here.

You can't fair catch a ball the has already touched the ground. It opens up more pooch kicks.

Also there has been little skill in kick offs, you just hoof it down the middle as hard as possible, mostly for touchbacks. A kicker that can direct the ball away from the returner but have it stop in bounds will have added value.

Not if anyone is allowed to fair catch it and get it at the 25. You dont even run "return" formations anymore. Put several guys back as "returners" and tell them to fair catch it no matter what. You could put 4 guys back there fielding kicks since they do not have to block. They are also protected as soon as they wave their arm...so they just sit back there and shag fly balls.

The strategy came in forcing a returner to make the decision of 1. Try to run with it....2. Try to let it go out of bounds but risk a live ball turnover....or 3. fair catch it and take it at the 5 or whatever.

There was really nothing wrong with that. I think employing some sort of strategy in Special Teams is important or we might as well just get rid of that portion of the game all together.

 

[Fitz4Ever]

The whole question with this needs to be: "What can the kicking team do to prevent the receiving team from getting the ball at the 25 yard line or beyond".

Right now the answer is...not much. They cant boot it deep. They now cant kick it short, or do some sort of coffin corner kick. They could squib kick...but chances are it will still wind up with a team at the 25...probably even further.

The only thing I could think of would be some sort of longer onside kick attempt...trying to get the ball to go maybe 20ish yards and go after a turnover? That would actually result in way more collisions though, so if that actually worked it would be banned by next year.

If the league wants the receiving team to start at the 25 yard line no matter what, then just make it a rule and completely eliminate the play from the game. Just have place kicking.

 

[Stout]

The whole question with this needs to be: "What can the kicking team do to prevent the receiving team from getting the ball at the 25 yard line or beyond".

Right now the answer is...not much. They cant boot it deep. They now cant kick it short, or do some sort of coffin corner kick. They could squib kick...but chances are it will still wind up with a team at the 25...probably even further.

The only thing I could think of would be some sort of longer onside kick attempt...trying to get the ball to go maybe 20ish yards and go after a turnover? That would actually result in way more collisions though, so if that actually worked it would be banned by next year.

If the league wants the receiving team to start at the 25 yard line no matter what, then just make it a rule and completely eliminate the play from the game. Just have place kicking.

I can't believe neither we nor the league kept trying this, but we used to do super high pop-up kicks near the sideline, and try to run under them. We had some success with it too. Give those a shot again.

 

[dreamcastrocks]

I can't believe neither we nor the league kept trying this, but we used to do super high pop-up kicks near the sideline, and try to run under them. We had some success with it too. Give those a shot again.

You miss, the ball goes out of bounds and they get the ball at the 40 instead of the 25. It is a risk.

 

[Stout]

You miss, the ball goes out of bounds and they get the ball at the 40 instead of the 25. It is a risk.

I don't recall that happening for us much because we angled the rotation of the ball so that, if it struck the ground, it bounced back towards the field of play. I remember that quite clearly. There is a risk, but it was mitigated. Then again, maybe it was a skillset that particular kicker (can't remember who it would've been) had that others didn't.

 

[Ronin]

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[BulldogCard]

They'll do this until it's flag football.