Curtis Samuel explains his odd choice to take a knee on late kickoff return

[shaqattaq]

This young man was all alone out there with virtually no one blocking for him and 10 players flying towards him with only 1 thing in their minds - take the ball away. Granted, taking a knee before anyone gets anywhere near him is a bit of a head-scratcher, but his priorities were:

1. Don't fumble.

2. Don't get himself hurt (we need him on the field).

3. Get as many yards possible.

[ThPantherFan]

21 hours ago, NeedSumD said:

Seriously?? So you guys wanted him running head long into the 6 guys running right at him??  Because our ST's was setup to defend the OSK! And the excuse is its all Ron Riveras fault?? Where's Shonuff the only thing missing is him talking about his hi football IQ.

Every yard counts.  That's his job.

[Harbingers]

23 hours ago, Eazy-E said:

If he somehow gets rocked and turns it over everyone would be screaming asking why he didn’t just get down or get out of bounds. 

Not going to get mad at a rookie about this.

They will always find the most petty poo to whine about man. It’s in their nature. 

[Harbingers]

11 minutes ago, ThPantherFan said:

Every yard counts.  That's his job.

And every fumble? 

[Harbingers]

9 hours ago, Snake said:

Rookie mistakes will happen. 

I don’t consider it a mistake at all. 

[HardcoreDefense]

We did have the Hands Team out there and it seems like he didn’t want to make a rookie mistake by fumbling the ball when they were clearly gaining the momentum. I also feel like he was caught off guard. By the time he was done fielding the ball it seems like he hesitated and wasn't expecting them to be that close to him. Imagine how many fans would want him gone if he did fumble.

 

By the second time he did return it for a decent amount of yards. I believe he has learned a lesson from this experience and will continue to improve.

[JARROD]

Butt fumble,..

[cardiackat88.]

I thought it worked out in Panther's favor.

A long field to chew up clock and churn out yards, plus no chances of fumbling on kickoff.

[BananaGrabber]

Apparently, I'm the only one that had no issue with this whatsoever. We had a 10 point lead, with the ball and under 6 minutes to play. Our main goal at that point wasn't to score, but to run the clock. Of course, in an ideal situation, we do both. 

There was a 0% chance Samuel returns the kick off for a touchdown, given the onside kick formation we were in. If he didn't take a knee at the 12 yard line, he would have been blasted at the 18 anyway. Those 6 yards make absolutely no difference in the outcome of the game. We were either going to get a first down (after 3 predictable runs), or we weren't. The reason we punted from our own endzone was due to a holding call the following play. 

Given this situation:

What would you have liked Samuel to do?

• Best case: He returns it to the 18 yard line, not helping our win % at all.
• Worse case: Fumble, giving Detroit easy points and momentum.

[goodoleboy]

Its Shula's fault. Everything bad is Shula's fault.