Agreed, that's the first thing I noticed on the play... not only was the punt right down the middle it also had no hang time ... the ST unit was basically SOL right from the beginning... Lirim shoulders most of the blame for that particular punt return...
Yep great point. I was against the wind and LH was just trying to kick it as far as he could, instead of concentrating on putting it to a corner (which he is usually good at). We say someone 'vacated' a lane but the punt cover team in the huddle knows where the ball (as in what side) is being kicked too - and it's never kicked 'in the middle'. There's just so many things going on during a punting play that we really don't know.
But that being said - 3 TD returns from punts and it's only the halfway mark is unacceptable, but so is our crappy defense (if you bothered watching the Eskie/Cal game - lots of two and outs there but didn't see a D get 'tired' - that "our D got tired in the second half" excuse a lot of you use around here is pure BS) and pathetic offense. At least we're consistent all across the board. Except for the fans - fans are still the best IMO.
For the record Troy Westwood said that LH followed Bob Cameron's golden rule when kicking into the wind by hitying it low and as far as he could. The TD return is on the players and/or scheme set up for that type of punt. Having said that giving up 3 punt returns for td's in 10 games is not very good.
I don't know how firing Tracy and MOS now having to take on ST duties will help this team but the yhad to do something and firing Bell-fail is not an option at this point in the season. He is here to stay at least this year and for all we know they love his scheme and are blaming the woes on offence on lack of execution by the players.
If they blame the losses to the "lack of execution of the players" then that really falls to O'Shea. That's the very reason claimed by Chamblin why the Riders lose their first 9 games.