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Crossman: secretly our greatest weakness

RonnieTheBear

By RonnieTheBear,
in Carolina Panthers

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RonnieTheBear Newbie

RonnieTheBear

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Obviously, Delhomme’s play hurt us a lot this season. I’ve read threads where people wonder where we’d be if Moore had replaced him earlier and most of our offseason Wish Lists focus on QB or WR acquisitions. However, I think that the focus ought to be on special teams improvement. The great thing about special teams is you don't need a superstar and if you want a special teams star, you can easily pick one up without a first round pick (the position Carolina finds itself in).

Teams without a great or even good passing game can win the championship (’05 Steelers, ’02 Bucs, ’01 Patriots, ’00 Ravens). These teams all had help from their special teams on the way to the championship (e.g. Jermaine Lewis KO return TD in Super Bowl XXXV, Troy Brown’s punt return TD in the conference championship). The Panthers special teams used to be great, with returners like Michael Bates and, I believe, Smitty making the Pro Bowl.

But our return game has been terrible of late. I think I saw a graphic this year that showed that the Panthers have the longest drought for a punt/KO return TD in the NFL. In terms of kicking, Sauerbrun made the Pro Bowl in 2003 and Kasay has been solid, but the kicking game has gotten worse in recent years.

Panthers' special teams stats this year:

31st kick return average with no TDs, 31st 20+ yd & tied last 40+ yd kickoff returns

16th punt return average with no TDs and 0 40+ yd returns

Tied 9th most punt return fumbles (4)

20th in FG pct (82%)

Tied most placekicks blocked (2 FGs & 1XP. Tied with Bengals 2 FGs & 1 XP, Texans 3 FGs, and Eagles 1 FG & 2 XPs)

15th average kickoff (although good kickoff coverage stats)

14th punt average, but 24th in (much more important) net punt average

24th in punts inside the 20, but 23rd in touchbacks – evidently we punted in opponents’ territory less often than other teams

One of 10 teams to allow a punt return for a touchdown (all only allowed 1)

One of 6 teams to have had a punt blocked (all only had 1 blocked), none of which are HOU, CIN, or PHI, making the Panthers the sole league leaders in kicks blocked this year

http://www.panthers.com/team/coaches/danny-crossman/9bff4b44-c7f1-4446-bd55-01037360b31a From Crossman’s bio on the official page: “In his first season as the Panthers head special teams coach in 2005, Crossman nurtured the unit to one of its best seasons. Carolina ranked ninth in the comprehensive Dallas Morning News ratings on the strength of a second-place finish in punt coverage and a seventh-place finish in kickoff coverage”

According to the DMN, the progression of Crossman’s special teams unit’s rank is

2005 CAR ranked 9th

2006 CAR ranked 22nd

2007 CAR ranked 19th

2008 CAR ranked 12th

2009 CAR ranked ???

Basically, Crossman inherited a top 10 special teams unit and has dropped out of the top 10 and probably spent 3 of 5 years in the bottom half of the league. Rick Gosselin of DMN ranks special teams in February, so no 2009 data. He takes 22 special teams categories and adds up each teams league rankings (say you’re 1st in punt returns, punt avg., and net punts – that gives you 1 + 1 + 1 = 3 points). If CAR isn’t ranked very low this year, he needs to fix his formula because it’s broken. And we’d better find a replacement for Crossman because he’s not working either.

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RonnieTheBear Newbie

RonnieTheBear

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No secret that he's a weakness, but I think most people would make other changes before getting rid of Crossman. Whereas I think, out of any switch we could possibly make during the offseason, the one that would lead to the biggest improvement for next season (more wins) would be to fire Crossman.

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Razzy Newbie

Razzy

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Crossman should have been fired a few seasons ago. Horrible, horrible special teams play.

When was the last time this team ran a punt or a kickoff return in for points? Let alone past midfield. Christ.

And don't even start on the coverage.

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rico6 Grand Master

rico6

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Crossman should have been fired a few seasons ago. Horrible, horrible special teams play.

When was the last time this team ran a punt or a kickoff return in for points? Let alone past midfield. Christ.

And don't even start on the coverage.

That's a little inaccurate, but Crossman still sucks.

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