Of all the ways to seize momentum in a football game, there are few things more devastating than a blocked punt. The field position swing that comes with a blocked punt drastically changes the expectations and the strategy of both teams, and it can even be a means of coming up with a quick score. Close behind the power of a blocked punt is a big return, which also has the power of changing field position and even scoring. This season, our punt block/return team was ranked atop the conference with 4 blocked punts (one recovered for a TD) and over 11 yards per return. The players on this unit were carefully selected and they took pride in their efficiency and ability to make big plays for the team.
Philosophy
Our punt block philosophy is that we are the “most dangerous group on the field.” The players have to believe that and dedicate themselves to exemplifying that mentality. If the punt team makes a mistake in protection, we are going to block the punt. If the punt team doesn’t cover down in their proper lanes with intensity, we are going to have a big return. If the punt team attempts a fake, we are going to sniff it out and force a costly turnover on downs. We want to put the pressure on our opponent’s punt team and get them thinking defensively. That is, we want them to think if they get the punt off cleanly and we fair catch, that’s the best case scenario for them. And that’s still a win for us, since our offense takes over with a chance to score. Our punt block team is built around a short list of basic principles that each player on the unit must acknowledge and understand:
1) Aggression – More often than not, we are bringing some type of pressure on the kick. Pressuring the punter does have its risks, but there are numerous advantages to it as well. Of course there’s the possibility of delivering a devastating blow to our opponent with a blocked punt and even a chance to score. Furthermore, bringing pressure can force bad kicks and delay the release of the punt coverage because they’re tied up in protection, both of which make it easier to set up and execute a good return. Aggression even helps discourage fakes, and can make running one a very risky proposition.
2) Discipline – Know your role, do your job. Only if we are disciplined will we always wind up with the ball in our possession and have zero fakes executed on us. Being assignment-sound and disciplined helps put all the pieces together and ensure that we truly are the most dangerous group on the field, because not only do we make big plays, but we don’t make mistakes.
3) Athleticism – Though athleticism is a broad word, it’s much more meaningful to us than simply “speed.” Players need to understand that they can’t rely on their 40-time to make plays on this special teams unit. Rushing a kick or making an open field block requires great body control. We need athletes who can explode off the line and demonstrate the ability to change direction.
4) Technique – It should go without saying, but it requires pin-point technique to block a punt. Paying attention to coaching points and focusing on details can mean the difference between a game-changing play and a missed opportunity. From hand-placement to body positioning and footwork, being great at executing the technical details as they are coached is what will help us block punts and spring big returns.
Personnel
A few months back I blogged about the importance of special teams personnel, and the same principles apply here. When we are successful on this unit, it has less to do with scheme then it does with our personnel. Aside from the returner, the players on this unit are rarely guys that I would consider “specialists.” They’re just good football players. Some of them are starters and others are back-ups/role players, but none of that really matters. What matters is that they are hungry and competitive, which makes them dangerous individually and as a group.
The significance of the returner’s role in all of this cannot be stressed enough. Before we make the punt team fear a big return, we must first make them aware that they can’t force us to make a mistake. That means we field every catchable punt, cleanly and in the air. If necessary, I’ll take a fair catch every single time. Our priority is the ball, and our goal every season is to retain possession of the football 100% percent of the time. That is not negotiable. To ensure this, our returners must have great hands, but even more importantly, great awareness (and confidence) to be able to judge a ball in the air and position their body to make a clean catch. Aside from the catch itself, the second point of emphasis is ball security after the catch. If we do get some blocks set up and the kick is returnable, ball security remains our returner’s top priority. Tuck the ball away and don’t try to do too much. It’s easy for a returner who is confident in his athleticism to get overzealous in trying to make everyone miss. This leads to fumbles, which leads to us potentially falling short of our 100% possession goal. Our returner must understand that catching the ball and returning it back 7 yards before getting tackled is not an opportunity lost, it’s a fantastic result for our team. We got the ball, and the extra yardage was a bonus.
Scheme/Technique
When it comes down to it, our philosophy in regard to scheme is actually pretty simple. When rushing the punt, we are trying to exploit any weak spots in the protection. This is often an issue of match-ups, or a matter of spacing. We often focus on isolating specific players in the protection and putting them in conflict. In order to do that, we must understand what their rules are and how they are likely respond to certain movements. The rest of it is all angles and timing. We drill our players on how to bend their angle to the block point, using proper hand-placement and eye-discipline to block the kick. We don’t teach them to leap or launch their bodies, but rather to fully extend across the ball. When a kick is blocked, our mentality is always scoop and score. If you’re not first to the ball, you’re peeling back to block the most dangerous man.
Blocking for a return is all about effort and body-positioning. We coach our players that when they are pinning a man for the return rather than rushing the kick, they should be no less explosive off the line. We want to always give the impression of an aggressive rush, regardless of whether or not we are actually coming after the kick. We drill them as often as we can on footwork and how to use their body to wall off the coverage player. The key is to make him compromise his coverage landmark by disrupting his release and causing him to veer off from his desired path in the direction we want him to go. After that, it’s simply about running with his hip and harassing him all the way downfield, pushing him away from the return. Lastly, we coach them on how to recover when they get beat downfield by beating the coverage player to a point and essentially setting a pick with his body. This allows us to still make an effective block without risking a penalty.
The bottom line when it comes to our punt block/return philosophy is that we are a play-making unit. We aren’t on the field just to pass the time between offensive and defensive possessions. This unit is a weapon that we use to seize and control the momentum of the game. That “most dangerous group” mentality is how we approach our weekly game-plan and it’s how we coach our players.