rjc

April 17th, 2018 at 11:54 AM ^

This is pretty stupid IMO.  I'm all for making the game safer but it's inherently unsafe and these half measures don't really accomplish anything.  They might as well eliminate kickoffs altogether...  they're only interesting when there's a big return or when someone makes a big mistake deep in their territory.  

Joined: 02/12/2010

MGoPoints: 4974

crg

April 17th, 2018 at 1:48 PM ^

The fallacy in your logic is that the situation needs to be changed. Yes, football can be dangerous, but the guys choose to play because they like it. If they don't want to do something, they don't have to do it - including kickoffs. They can simply fair catch if they don't want to return it. Changing the rules is akin to what was done to boxing decades ago: the rules were changed in the name of safety yet made the sport less appealing to the athletes and the spectators (hence the growth of MMA in the past 30 years).

Joined: 04/30/2015

MGoPoints: 75054

corundum

April 17th, 2018 at 12:00 PM ^

His powers will still be valuable. There will still be a solid percentage of players that have one setting on kick returns: "Yo, watch this house call!" Despite whatever the scenario or coaching calls for.

Joined: 05/10/2012

MGoPoints: 47323

NCBlue22

April 17th, 2018 at 12:05 PM ^

We'll see in the fall.  It's going to make it difficult for the returner in some instances...if you can hang it to the 5 the returner will now have to decide whether to fair catch (an unnatural thing to do) or bring it out.  Making it a difficult decision will be key.  Indecision on the returner's part could lead to disaster. Some coaches might practice to fair catch everything but some might practice to bring it out more.  

All this to say I actually think the change will be negligible and having a weapon like James Doug Foug is still valuable.

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 967

mgobaran

April 17th, 2018 at 12:11 PM ^

Foug can just boot it up in the air and have it land at the 20-25 yard line, allowing our guys to run under it for the 40-yard onside kick. Then when the returners get closer to the 25 yard line in anticipation, boop, over their heads. Race to the 1 yard line for a free football. 

Joined: 09/12/2012

MGoPoints: 22811

1VaBlue1

April 17th, 2018 at 12:18 PM ^

Yeah...  If a team has a viable return threat, there will be some decision point yard mark where the returner will have a choice to make.  So, rather than dropping it at the 0-2 yd line, the decision point is moved to the 10 yd line, and James Doug Foug Jr drops his high hanger there?  I could see a returner getting murderized trying to bring it back from the 10 after a 4 second hang time.  The cover team will be around the 20 by the time he catches the ball and looks downfield!

Decisions...

Joined: 01/31/2016

MGoPoints: 127367

ScruffyTheJanitor

April 17th, 2018 at 12:09 PM ^

You can either:

A) choose to return kicks but fair catches/kicks out of the end zone put you on the 15 yard line

B) You can recieve the ball at the 25 with no kick.

This way, unless you have a truly dynamic threat or are trying to make a comeback, most of the time you just take the ball.

 

Edit: Whoops, had a brain fart there. Should have said 20 yard line for the first and 35 yard line for the second.

Joined: 02/03/2011

MGoPoints: 12197

carolina blue

April 17th, 2018 at 12:17 PM ^

The kicking rule, though I dislike it. I just can’t believe they actually adopted the 10-sec runoff rule for video reviews that show the clock should have kept running. This is going to cost someone a game when they run a quick out to get 5 or so yds closer for a field goal, initially ruled OOB with 9 sec to go but is overturned to be in bounds and game over. In that situation, only 5 yds down field, I promise you that teams can set up a spike in that time. Hell, Michigan completely swapped out for the FG team in 12 seconds against NW in 2013. I’m pretty sure it can be done in 8 secs or maybe even as little as 6. This is a TERRIBLE rule and will absolutely cost someone a game. Edit: what it will probably do is force teams to be MUCH more careful with timeouts. I have to imagine if an overturn like this happens you can use a TO instead of the time running out and game ending. Right?

Joined: 02/12/2014

MGoPoints: 30259

carolina blue

April 17th, 2018 at 1:28 PM ^

It may not end a game all that often, but it will almost certainly affect the clock in the last couple minutes of close games and potentially multiple times in one game. Think about a team doing their 2 minute drill how often they rep coming to the line for a spike. If they know they need it, they can spike it VERY quickly. It could cost a team 4,5,6 seconds easily if there are multiple overrules. 10 seconds is arbitrary and not supported by any data. If there were a study that said “the fastest 1000 spike plays last year averaged 8.1 seconds” and based off that they said it’d be an 8 second runoff then maybe I’d be ok with it. Absent of that I hate it.

Joined: 02/12/2014

MGoPoints: 30259

MGoFoam

April 17th, 2018 at 12:46 PM ^

That's an impressive video. I really like the Schiano rule. I'd say make it 4th and 15, or even 20. It needs to be a low probability play or some teams would always take it. You would see scores of 126-3,

Joined: 04/11/2014

MGoPoints: 12157

njvictor

April 17th, 2018 at 12:27 PM ^

I'm all for making football safer, but this completely ruins kickoffs. It basically takes away the risk of returning a kick instead of taking the touchback. Now you basically have 25 yards to make a decision to kneel. I'm not sure how this necessarily makes the game that much safer anyway

Joined: 07/20/2017

MGoPoints: 65379

MC5-95

April 17th, 2018 at 12:48 PM ^

I think you misread the rule. It has to be called fair catch before the player has caught the ball. You can't catch it at the 5, take a knee at the 10, and have it moved up to the 25. It's basically making kick-offs more like punts, except it moves it up to the 25. 

Joined: 02/26/2014

MGoPoints: 4985

bronxblue

April 17th, 2018 at 12:34 PM ^

I don't get kickoffs even being a thing anymore.  As noted, it has an outsized chance of injuring a player and the vast majority of them don't functionally change field position.  I'd be fine with it being in the game because of that small chance it can flip a game, but I'm also fine with it being out because of how dangerous it is.  So it's weird that they are making all these rules to basically outlaw it in practice but not in the letter of the law.  It feels like a half-measure that will just lead to guys fair-catching it in basically all instances unless they are down and it's late.

Joined: 11/22/2008

MGoPoints: 171849

VintageBlue

April 17th, 2018 at 1:26 PM ^

Doesn't this just incentivize more pop up kicks, only at the 10-20 yard line instead of the 0-10?  In other words, the returners will be closer to the coverage teams who are running full tilt towards them hoping to incite a dropped fair catch or cream the guy if he tries to run.

Making kickoffs more like punts, except without all those pesky return team guys at the LOS to deal with, seems like a dumb way to make the game safer.

 

Joined: 08/04/2011

MGoPoints: 3392