On the subject of long snappers, I've blamed everything on Boone Stutz since he first came in and completely botched the first 12 seconds of the Saints game last year.
And when I say "everything," I mean "everything." The economy's bad? BLAME BOONE STUTZ. The price of gas sucks? BLAME BOONE STUTZ. Can't find a job? BLAME BOONE STUTZ! BLAME HIM TO HELL!
I'm fine, I swear. Did I mention I'm glad we drafted a long snapper? I was enthralled, seriously.
That picture looks like a kid I used to pick on in grade school! LOL
I think special teams is a big deal based on how it affects the offense / defense. If you long snapper or kick is suspect and you are faced with forth down looking at a 46 or 47 yard attempt, do you go for it or punt? And when your punt coverage unit is consistantly allowing solid returns it puts extra pressure on your defense and you can easily start loosing the field position game.
I think teams that rely on the home run play like a Devon Hester to win are really flawed. You need solid special teams and if you are lucky to get a huge play that swings momentum all the better. But you to win in the NFL you need to be able to put up points and stop the other teams without counting on the big play coming from special teams.
IMO, the special team units simply need to be good enough to not put the team at a disadvantage. ie, the snapper situation last year. Big plays from special teams are great, but consistant play is much more important.
I think that special teams are much more a catalyst to the offense and defense that pure stats can posibbly show. Missing a FG puts stress on the offense. Letting a returner have a great return and give his team good field position and puts our defense at a big disadvantage. Where do those get accounted for when you look at special team stats?
I'm not buying into the notion that you can have a so so special teams unit and not have it affect your team very much. After Pete Rodrigues left the Seahawks, we had a series of mediocre special teams and we paid through the nose for it. When Holmgren is afraid to punt the ball because of how bad our punting and return coverage is, that's affecting our game hugely. When he goes for it on 4th down rather than try a FG because he has no confidence in our kicking game, that's a big problem. When we continually give our opponent starting position near midfield while we start near our own goalline, that's hugely affecting our team when it's because of poor return coverage and kickoff returns from our special teams.
To say that special teams isn't very important is to be largely unaware of how much what they do affects what our offense and defense does or how much their failure to perform drags down the performance of every other component of our team. I believe special teams can make or break your team. I also believe that special teams stats can't tell you squat about how these inter-relationships work or how much we depend on them to do their job.
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