It's often said that there are three critical components to a teams success; offensive, defensive, and special teams execution. The special teams have let this team and the fans down for an extended period now. I can't remember a time since Nolan Cromwell was here that I thought to myself "we really have a good special teams unit". Other than our field goal kicking, all other facets of the special teams over the past 10 years or more are lacking or at the least certainly not exceptional including punting, punt coverage, kickoff coverage, punt returns and kick returns.
Much like defense, special teams relies on being motivated and having fire in the belly along with a fiery and competent special teams coach. This lack of coaching and fiery attitude seems to be prevalent in other facets of the team as well. I can almost forgive what happened in Seattle where we not only screwed up the on-sides kick but we also bungled a fake field goal earlier in the game; but being consistently poor or mediocre game after game is getting old.
I miss the days of Travis Williams, Desmond Howard, Don Beebe, or a punter that surprises me with a 70 yard booming kick, etc. It's pretty sad, but at this point if we have a draw with our special teams unit against anybody in a game , I consider that a win. You can always find a statistic to prove me wrong but the eye test says we need a change in coaching and teaching.
