Concerns about the Kicking game
 

It appeared our Kicking Game suffered somewhat in todays game. Was it the weather, or just our Kickers period?

I have concerns about the height on Novack's kicks.Two kicks blocked in two games seems to be a first for us that I can remember. Our Punter makes us really miss Tupa for distance, and accuracy, makes me wonder why we didn't keep Groom.

Re: Concerns about the Kicking game
 

Groom wasn't doing jack in case you missed it.

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He doesn't get the ball up as much as he should. He hit a couple of nice ones, though, and the one on the penalty...did that one go through?? I couldn't tell, but if it did, he's worth working with. I do miss John Hall though.

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Well frost doesn't seem like much of an upgrade, but yeah I miss the hell outta Tupa. It seemed like we were constantly pinning people back inside the 20 with him from all over the field.

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yes i think the 50+ one went through that is amazing

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It looked that it went through but it wasn't pretty....ball was spinning from side to side but that may be because he slowed down before kicking it. The announcers were also saying that the ball was getting soaked with so much water that it weighed it down....could that possibly be part of it? But Novak's gotta kick it higher...

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anyone see in the cinci game tonight where this punter kicked a punt 70 yards, then it was called back, and he rekicked again and it only went for 30 yards lol. i'm glad we don't have those kind of problems, but our kicking game concerns me. nick novak has to start kicking field goals higher, because his are getting blocked too often. if he doesn't show improvement i think we should sign someone else.

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I wouldn't be suprised to see Novak on the street. Two blocks in two weeks? That's pretty poor -- his kicks seem to be fairly low.

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The block against Seattle was a missed blocking assignment. Don't know about this week.

But the kid hit a 53 yarder (would have given us enough to win--negated by a false start), hit one in the first half, and then a big one in the rain in the 4th quarter. Oh, and he won the game against Seattle, even though he had to kick twice. And he made the tackle against Dallas. And he had a tackle in this game.

For a rookie, he's done the job.

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Hall should be back this week....thank you for your services Mr. Novak as you helped us to a 3-1 record (not sarcasm).

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[QUOTE=Mattyk72]Groom wasn't doing jack in case you missed it.[/QUOTE]
lol

Anyway, Novak hasn't been straight up awful. He's had a couple blocked kicks, but he seems to be pretty accurate otherwise. IMO, he's A LOT better than everybody else out on the street. I'd pick him over some everyday starting kickers too.

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I find it difficult to beat up either the kicker or punter for poor performances in that weather yesterday. As Bill Maas (repeatedly) said, the ball gets much heavier in the rain, minimizing any benefit the altitude gives them. Novak also took a pop on kickoff coverage, which made all his kicks the sports equivalent of miracles.

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Is it REALLY because his kicks are low or are we just saying that because they're getting blocked?

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Doesn't matter. John Hall will be healthy real soon and Novak will get dropped. Knowing Gibbs' propensity for relying on veterans, I don't think Novak ever had a real shot to permanently replace Hall, whether he was perfect on all attempts or not.

Hall is clutch. He makes the pressure kicks. I think Gibbs knows that and wouldn't make the mistake of getting rid of him. Hopefully he's back this week.

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I hope he AND Walt Harris AND Springs are all back.

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I wouldn't be surprised if Hall is the one that gets dropped soon.

This quad problem has been ongoing for a year now, it's probably unlikely that it will completely resolve and not be a problem again.

Dumping him will be a tough decision, but we might not have a choice.

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[QUOTE=TheMalcolmConnection]Is it REALLY because his kicks are low or are we just saying that because they're getting blocked?[/QUOTE]

I thought even his game winning kick against the Seahawks looked low. It was like a line drive

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Hmmm. If that's the case I'm REALLY hoping Hall is ready soon...

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[QUOTE=JWsleep]The block against Seattle was a missed blocking assignment. Don't know about this week.

But the kid hit a 53 yarder (would have given us enough to win--negated by a false start), hit one in the first half, and then a big one in the rain in the 4th quarter. Oh, and he won the game against Seattle, even though he had to kick twice. And he made the tackle against Dallas. And he had a tackle in this game.

For a rookie, he's done the job.[/QUOTE]

I agree, for a rookie he's done pretty well. He even improved on his kickoff distance this week, which has been a knock in previous games.

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His previous short kickoffs were reportedly done on purpose according to Gibbs. Something about kicking them short and high to allow the coverage to get down quicker.

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Gotta say false start on a FG is a real dumb penalty. But for that we maybe win by 2. If that had been the case, would anyone be down on Novak?

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I am not down on Novak...its just the veteran Hall is consistent when he is on the field. John Hall makes that kick that was blocked.

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[QUOTE=Longtimefan]I have concerns about the height on Novack's kicks.[/QUOTE]

I agree 100%. And the kick he made in OT against Seattle also came out very low.

I'm no kicking expert, but I see a soccer style kicker who seems to need to give it a little extra to compensate for a lack of range. Still he's handled the pressure situations great and it looked like that 53-yarder was good, so maybe there's hope. But count me in on concerned, it's all about the kicking game.

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I don't mean to hijack this thread, but speaking of low-it seems like Rabach had a lot of low snaps against Denver. And it wasn't the first week he's had this problem.

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Is Rabach the long snapper or Ethan Albright? However, Rabach did have a couple low snaps from the Shotgun formation yesterday.

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Yeah Ethan's the long snapper. I was referring to his snaps on that last drive

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Yes TAFKAS, those are the one's I was refering too, and I will agree with you it could be a problem in the future if not corrected. I guess it's better however that the snaps are low as opposed to being high. Would you agree?