FanPost

Detroit's Not So Special Teams Volume 1

Like most Lions fans, I am more than a little concerned over the state of the special teams. Their performance against the Ravens was terrible, only being saved by penalties by the Ravens on two long returns. Let's take a moment to look back at their performance over the last few years.

I am going to use the ranking system supplied by the Football Outsiders [an excellent football site that is well worth a look]. They compare each NFL team versus the average performance in five categories; FG/XP, Kick Coverage, Kick Returns, Punt Coverage, and Punt returns, then rank them against their peers.

In 2009 the Lions were ranked 31st [ http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/teamst2009 ]overall in special teams play. This was the last year that the special teams were coached by the favourite whipping boy of Lions fans everywhere; Stan Kwan. I was more than pleased that the Lions chose to upgrade this staff position.

In 2010, the Lions hired Danny Crossman from the Carolina Panthers. He was considered a successful coach, but not really in the eyes of the statistics generated by FootballOutsiders.com. The Panthers regularly, except in 2008, finished in the bottom quarter of the NFL in overall special teams play under Mr. Crossman's direction.

The 2010 Lions were ranked 11th [ http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/teamst2010 ] overall. Quite an improvement.

The individual rankings were 4th for FG/XP; 7th for Kick Returns; 10th for Punt Returns; 17th for KO Coverages; and 25th for Punt Coverage. Stephan Logan can rightly take a lot of credit for the success of the return teams that year, and the FG/XP ranking was due to the combined efforts of Jason Hanson and Dave Rayner. The coverage teams, even then, did not cover themselves in glory.

The 2011 Lions sunk back to 31st [ http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/teamst ] in the NFL, just ahead of the Vikings. The failure was spread out across the board, with the FG/XP dropping to 21st; Kick Returns to 17th; Punt Returns to 27th; Kick Coverage to 30th; and Punt Coverage to 26th. The Lions had pretty much the same players [ie. Logan on returns and Hanson on FG/XP] on the teams that severely declined in performance, while undergoing many changes on the coverage teams with two new punters.

I am not going to get into a defence of their methodology, but from my memory of the last two years, I would overall agree that the Lions had good returns in 2010 and poor returns in 2011. I also agree that our FG kicking was much poorer in 2011 than 2010. I also agree that our coverage teams have generally stunk over these last two years. So, in general, I agree with how they have ranked the Lions.

I will go further into each of these elements of the special teams in later FanPosts over the next week or so. I hope to stimulate some discussion through the fan base about the different parts of this team and where they think the Lions can improve and how. I'll be honest. I am no expert on special teams play so I will be posing some questions which I would appreciate some feedback by other Lions fans.

Thanks, and GO LIONS!!

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pride Of Detroit or its writers.