Special Teams Salute
anotherdork February 10, 2020, 4:26am #1
Defense speaks for itself but the Gainey block and resulting TD plus the quick recovery of WPG short kick which helped set up FG were the difference. Nice job.
HalfTheDistance February 10, 2020, 4:26am #2
Usually ST is an unsung hero.. they get little fan fare for sure!
Oskie09 February 10, 2020, 4:26am #3
A blocked punt is so rare that when it happens it is one of the most exciting plays in football. And add in the fact that it was the Ti-Cats that did it, I jumped out of my seat.
Frustrating game, a real heart stopper. But a win is a win.
"HalfTheDistance":
Kickers and Punters are usually the only CFL/NFL players that I follow and watch with interest during games....a talented punter who can consistantly down punts inside the 20 with massive 4.5 second hangtime punts can be the best weapon of any team.....the defense will always appreciate you :thup:
oski-oui-oui February 10, 2020, 4:26am #5
The greatest punter I have ever seen was Ray Guy. In Canada, I think one could easily say prime Hank Ilesic, but I really like the punters who one could always rely on for superb directional kicking, great hangtimes, and the ability to kick in bad weather (especially against the wind). Joe Zuger, Wally Buono, Bob Cameron, Lui Passaglia...look at the net yardage per punt, not the distance. Coffin corner punting is also big (Swayze Waters had that epic game earlier this year), but it really boils down to the ability to neutralize the return game of the opposition quarter by quarter.
Oski Wee Wee,
blue_tees February 10, 2020, 4:26am #6
Kruba earned his pay for the year with that heads up recovery of the short kick to start the second half. Great football awareness for a rookie.
kicker February 10, 2020, 4:26am #7
What we seem to have gained in the kicking/FG dept with Medlock; we have lost (in my view) in the punting dept. I sure miss Bartel's excellent knack for knocking punts stiff into the coffin corner inside the 10 yd line.
PatLynch February 10, 2020, 4:26am #8
"kicker":
Best TiCat punters - Cam Fraser and Joe Zuger. Best Argo punter- Dave Mann.
Pat Lynch(the old guy)
What we seem to have gained in the kicking/FG dept with Medlock; we have lost (in my view) in the punting dept. I sure miss Bartel's excellent knack for knocking punts stiff into the coffin corner inside the 10 yd line.
Its one of those things, Medlock is arguably the best Kicker in the CFL (my biased opinion) but is a mediocre punter at best. You can see it a mile away, hes a kicker first, punter second. From KA's perspective, how much field position are we willing to gamble each game with Medlocks luke warm punting, just to save ~ 70000$ a year in cap space that you would give to a Punter only specialist???
spike February 10, 2020, 4:26am #10
I would not want to criticize Medlock's punting too much. Bartel last year had an average of 43.7 and an average net of 35.2. His average this year is up to 45 but his average net is now 34.5. Medlock this year has an average of 42.3 and an average net of 35.
K_P February 10, 2020, 4:26am #11
"spike":
Fair enough, these numbers don't lie and im guilty of looking past the significance of these statistics. The difference we gained lost with losing Bartel, gaining Medlock as our punter have been negligible.....
kicker February 10, 2020, 4:26am #12
When the prevailing strategy in many cases is to try and place punts and hit the coffin corner, one can't read to much into punting averages.
It seemed to me that Bartel was very good at coffin corner punts; especially inside the 10yd line. He seemed to be able to put some kind of spin on the ball that would make the ball bounce and sit rather then dribble into the endzone.
Medlock hasn't been as good in that aspect of the kicking game and its a bit of shame in light of our strong defence. We miss out on opportunities to pin opponents deep in their end, hold them to a "2 and out" and then get the ball back in good field position.
Good point, kicker. And I agree that Medlock is towards the bottom of the league in punting. It would probably be possible to get a better International punter, but the Cats would have to drop one of Bowman, Gainey or Banks as DIs. I don't know of an available National punter who would be much better than Medlock and even if there were, it would be hard to find room for him even on the National side of the roster. I think bringing him in has been a very good decision.
tabbiefanmcb February 10, 2020, 4:26am #14
STs coverage unit does a good job IMO 98% of the time in limiting returns to very few yards which would help the average net stat. Medlock is a perfectionist so you can be sure he will continue to work on the punting and make every effort to improve. That being said, I do miss our Aussie punter although he finally was injured on one of those running punts. Wish him a speedy recovery.
TigersCoach February 10, 2020, 4:26am #15
I completely agree in theory, but I can't recall an instance this year where Medlock bounced or rolled the ball ending up with a single point where I wanted to see him pin them deep. It has likely occurred, but I can't recall it right now and I don't believe it's a significant problem. I do recall a poor late game punt versus Winnipeg at Mac where he tried to pin them deep and mis-hit the punt not getting it deep enough; but that's just one. I also recall one punt on the last play of the half where Medlock wanted to try a FG but Austin had him punt for a single and he got us the point. Overall Medlock has 5 points from punt singles and Bartell has 4 this season.
I suspect that we all agree that Bartell is the better punter right now, but statistically the difference seems to be very small. Medlock certainly isn't hurting us with his punting, at least not enough to be impacting the outcome of games. The salary cap is likely a non-factor in this decision. As others have said, I'm sure it's more about the player that would have to come off the active roster to make room for an additional specialist. Anything gained in the punting game would be more than offset elsewhere.
"TigersCoach":
..... I do recall a poor late game punt versus Winnipeg at Mac where he tried to pin them deep and mis-hit the punt not getting it deep enough......
The instances where I have been disappointed with Medlock's punting has been just that; where the play calls for a coffin corner punt and he ends up shanking and coming up woefully short. Its happened a few times.
With all of that said, I'm not advocating that we replace Medlock nor I am regretting the overall decision to bring him in to replace Congi/Bartel.
It would be nice to have all aspects of the kicking game but if I had to choose between a kicker who excels at FGs vs one that excels at punting, then I would go with the FG kicker as he's the one that can put points on the board.