Gibson to Special Teams - Special team gaffes from last season

I think you could still agrue we lost the MSU and Purdue games due to bad special teams play.

MSU on the fake that resulted in an MSU FG in a game that went to OT.

Purdue on two muffed onside kicks (one successful by the Boilers where Mich did not see the ball kicked before running back for return - the other where we just didn't execute an up the middle onside kick - it was there for the taking.)

One might also argue some other games but these two were both coachable mistakes (though the Purdue player just wanted it more than the two Mich blockers - I guess.) I don't think Hagerup is going to have fake on his mind on the shy side of the 50 this year.

I general though, agreed - only one season was worse wrt special teams in my memory than 2008 and that was 1979 which turned out better by record, but was a special teams disaster.

high risk high reward. Karsh was saying on 97.1 that the stats say it's about 60% chance of recovering a surprise onside kick, so you have a good shot at getting it and if you do, then you keep peyton on the sidelines for another series.

Geez guys .. it was just my opinion

I certainly did not anticipate it at the time and was surprised but the call made sense for several reasons:

- Sean Payton, like most observers, thought it would be hard to keep the Colts from scoring so it was imperative for the Saints to keep the ball away from them as much as possible and score themselves.
- From the first half you had the sense that the Colts might be able to move the ball fairly easily until they got near the red zone. If so giving up the yards in the middle of the field might not be that costly as they would likely make up that ground pretty quickly regardless.
- An onside kick is obviously more likely to succeed when it is unexpected. No one expected it. If you thought you could recover one there would be no better opportunity.
- In the last few minutes of the first half the game had taken a decided turn in the Saints favor and "stealing" the ball to start the second half would keep the colts from taking the momentum back.

Payton prepared for it and picked his spot wisely. It was a reasonable gamble and may have made the difference in winning the game.

Logic police

He took a chance and got a likely result. It was a smart call because of a combination of the likelihood it would work and the coupled impacts it would have on momentum (keeping Manning on the sideline longer). Had it not worked, it still would have been a smart call. You can't judge the brilliance of an act by its effects, only by what proceeded it, only by its inputs. A combination of likely factors made it a good call. That is it. Had a combination of factors made it a bad call, and he still made the call yet got a good result, that is not brilliance, that is chance. Which, by definition, happens. But saying he was brilliant only because it worked is, well, boneheaded.