Special Teams Disaster!

[LakeHighlandsPony]

Worst Special teams performance in 20 years!

[ponyscott]

I agree.....what were they thinking?......poor coverage and tackling for certain.......I think that demonstrates our lack of depth....

[SMU 86]

Lack of depth. I guess we ar 2 recruiting classes away as Coach Jones has said.

[CalallenStang]

Was waiting for Syzmanski to miss one of those high snaps. Thankfully, he brought them all down.

[Eye In the Sky]

I've never seen such a horrendous performance in every phase of the kicking game. I swear I could have run through some of the lanes their returners had. Why did we continue to kick to them? After about the 5th 30-40+ yard return (or more), wouldn't we just kick it out of bounds and take our chances. Taking the penalty on kickoffs and putting them at the 40 would have been a huge improvement!

At least they couldn't convert a PAT to save their lives! Props to Margus Hunt on blocking the first attempt.

[Glenn Sosbee]

Was waiting for Syzmanski to miss one of those high snaps. Thankfully, he brought them all down.

Symanski is one of the mvp's of this team thus far. What does that tell you?

[Dark Horse]

Have to agree. Special teams are where we lost the game (although Callalen beat me to it about Szymanski - GREAT hands).

[TheBestAvailable]

Szymanski did a good job of catching bad snaps but he is not a very good punter. We need to recruit a better punter and let Szymanski kick field goals.

Also, he should be forced into tackling drills this week as punishment for his lack of effort on that first runback for a TD. He did everything possible to avoid having to tackle #85.

[SMUer]

Szymanski did a good job of catching bad snaps but he is not a very good punter. We need to recruit a better punter and let Szymanski kick field goals.

Also, he should be forced into tackling drills this week as punishment for his lack of effort on that first runback for a TD. He did everything possible to avoid having to tackle #85.

Yeah, what was that!?! You'd think testosterone/adrenaline alone would make him do something aggressive to get him down. It's a mistake not to put punters through basic tackling drills. He actually had a couple of those plays.

[KnuckleStang]

Coverage was quite poor, embarrassing at times, it was like people had forgotten what a lane is, but when a team like ours plays a ranked school like them, special teams is always going to be where the biggest mismatches occur. On that punt return, I counted something like three SMU players whose feet flew up over their head. Also, as to Szymanski's kicks, I'll say 2 things. Bad snaps make it very difficult to punt well. And, as a former hs punt snapper, I can tell you that when the ball gets wet, all bets are unfortunately off.

[CalallenStang]

Have to agree. Special teams are where we lost the game (although Callalen beat me to it about Szymanski - GREAT hands).

Perhaps we should put Syzmanski at WR to catch some of BLM's overthrows.

[larskjenstad]

Szymanski did a good job of catching bad snaps but he is not a very good punter. We need to recruit a better punter and let Szymanski kick field goals.

Also, he should be forced into tackling drills this week as punishment for his lack of effort on that first runback for a TD. He did everything possible to avoid having to tackle #85.

Yah...but he saved two other TD's by Kerley, by being the last guy to beat and our punter forced him out of bounds, albeit 60 yds downfield. The Deep Snapper was really awful......

[CalallenStang]

At least once a week, the deep snapper and punter need to practice with a wet football. If there's no rain, take a water hose and get the football wet.

[redpony]

The horrible performance of our special teams was surpassed only by the pathetic performance of our qb with his over throwing, under throwing and interceptions.

GO PONIES!!! -please get better

[tfphoto]

Kick coverage was poor, but SMU did a great job on kick returns. They were continuously out at least to the 40.