Marwan Maalouf

[Guest]

@JimmyinSD said:

@MaroonBells said:

@Tyr said:
Miami has been really good at blocking kicks and punts, while Priefer was really good at having punts and kicks blocked. It would be amazing if we could start blocking some kicks.

Vikings never tried. I don't know that I saw them call a block on a punt all year. They always called the return, which makes some sense if you have great returners, but we didn't. 

i think I would set up for a block every time there is a kick from around mid field... you know that your returner is most likely going to fair catch it anyway at about the 8-10, so why not put everybody at the LOS and go after the kick,  even if you dont get it you might be lucky and rush the punter into a bad kick or slow their coverage team enough that it bounces into the endzone for a touch back.

Yeah, Sherels is an OK punt returner, but definitely not a game breaker at this point, so setting things up for a return doesn't seem like a great idea. The kick returner situation was even worse. Rule changes have eliminated a lot of the effectiveness of kick returners, but it got to the point where I'd rather just take a touchback and start at the 25, then let Zylstra or someone try to return a kick. Kicking woes were the most obvious problem on special teams, but there are a lot of issues that need to be fixed. Hopefully a new set of eyes on the problem help and we stay away from rookie kickers for a while.