Short Kick Offs

[SledNeck]

Anyone else notice that Longwell cant kick one past the 10 yard line on kick offs?

[CJH]

He's even worse outdoors when it gets cold out. There's a reason the Pack let him go.

[PierBridge]

He's been nothing short of spectacular for us and the Packers are miserable they let him go!

[nofishfisherman]

I actually had to go back and look up the stat on this because I I haven't noticed anything too bad. After looking it up both of the first two posts are a little off base.

Longwell is actually averaging 64.7 yards on kick offs which puts the ball at about the 5 yard line which is about average from the list I saw.

Longwell is also hitting 95% of his field goals including 2 for 2 on 50 plus yarders.

Oh and Pier is right about the Packers probably prefering to have Longwell back. Mason Crosby is only averaging 62.6 yards on kick offs and has only hit 76% of his field goals, including only 1 of 5 from over 50 yards.

If you are looking for a target for the next "Fire/Cut Him" thread you might want to look else where. Maybe one of the water boys would be a good target. I thought I saw Favre looking a little thirsty on Sunday night. I blame the loss on the poor performance of the water boy. How can we win with a thirsty QB?

[zamboni]

He's even worse outdoors when it gets cold out. There's a reason the Pack let him go.

Let him go? I always thought he signed here because he wanted to play in the Dome.

[SkunkedAgain]

The Packers didn't release Longwell, he left as a free agent and the Vikings were able to offer more money than the Packers.

As for kickoffs, he's always kicked shorter than other kickers. In fact, for several years the Packers had the punter handling kickoffs just to get better kickoffs than Longwell could provide. You can't just look at average yards, but also need to factor in hang time. A kicker that kicks five yards farther but has less hang time will give the returner and blockers more advantage to setup a return.

All that aside, Longwell is one heck of a field goal specialist. I wish that he was still a Packer, along with punter Craig Hentrich whom they couldn't afford to keep after the Super Bowl run.

[CJH]

The Pack didn't make him an offer, since his play was diminishing in adverse conditions (Nov/Dec in Lambeau). I like him, and think he is a solid kicker.

Here are the facts, straight off of NFL.com, so stop the [PoorWordUsage]. At his age, Longwell is benefiting from playing in the dome. He is a career 83% kicker, including averaging 95% this year.

The last season in GB his FG% was 74% - not good. His Kick off average was only 60.9. This year in the dome he is at 64.7, so his kicking it 4 yards farther in the dome. He only averages 5 touchbacks per year.

Crosby is not having a good year, and I am not overly thrilled with him (75.9 FG %). However he does at least have a strong leg and is averaging 16 TB a year, and is on pace to continue that average this year (he already has 10 this year). If he was a little more accurate, he would be good, but as of right now, he is average/below average kicker with a big leg.

[splakeshaker]

The Pack didn't make him an offer, since his play was diminishing in adverse conditions (Nov/Dec in Lambeau). I like him, and think he is a solid kicker.

Here are the facts, straight off of NFL.com, so stop the [PoorWordUsage]. At his age, Longwell is benefiting from playing in the dome. He is a career 83% kicker, including averaging 95% this year.

The last season in GB his FG% was 74% - not good. His Kick off average was only 60.9. This year in the dome he is at 64.7, so his kicking it 4 yards farther in the dome. He only averages 5 touchbacks per year.

Crosby is not having a good year, and I am not overly thrilled with him (75.9 FG %). However he does at least have a strong leg and is averaging 16 TB a year, and is on pace to continue that average this year (he already has 10 this year). If he was a little more accurate, he would be good, but as of right now, he is average/below average kicker with a big leg.

That is accurate. I agree 100%.

[zamboni]

The Pack didn't make him an offer, since his play was diminishing in adverse conditions (Nov/Dec in Lambeau). I like him, and think he is a solid kicker.

They have said it several times, both on the radio and on TV, he wanted to come here and kick in the dome. It wasn't like the Packers didn't want him back, he made it clear to them he wanted to be indoors.

[SkunkedAgain]

I'll give the Vikings credit. They take our re-treads and make them great again. Sharper was losing a step, but he played really well for MN and now even better for New Orleans. Longwell was slipping but still a good kicker. Favre was fading at the end of seasons and now...so far so good!

[lawdog]

I'll give the Vikings credit. They take our re-treads and make them great again. Sharper was losing a step, but he played really well for MN and now even better for New Orleans. Longwell was slipping but still a good kicker. Favre was fading at the end of seasons and now...so far so good!

Maybe they just needed a decent team to play for!!!

[SledNeck]

We need to bring in a kick off specialist now. WOW. You can talk all you want about missed tackles on special teams, but longwell kicking off to the 20 yard line is unexcusable.

[Jim Uran]

He's even worse outdoors when it gets cold out. There's a reason the Pack let him go.

I can't believe it!!! Longwell is AWESOME!!! There isn't a kicker in the league I'd rather have than him. Look at Mr. Clutch Crosby.... WHAT A JOKE.

[DTro]

Yeah the short kicks are diappointing, but the special teams tackling is even worse.

[zepman]

Yeah the short kicks are diappointing, but the special teams tackling is even worse.

Sometimes they go hand in hand.

[Dave S]

We need to bring in a kick off specialist now. WOW. You can talk all you want about missed tackles on special teams, but longwell kicking off to the 20 yard line is unexcusable.

I'm almost 2 years older the Favre and if they want someone to kick off only 50 yards, they can pay me half the salary they're paying Longwell to do the same job. His accuracy for 3 and PATs is among the best, but his distance is awful.

Maybe we should look up the lineman who kicked for a touchback this weekend. I don't recall the team, but if a lineman can kick 70+ yards and Longwell can't, then I agree we need a designated kickoff specialist.

None of that makes up for the poor defensive performance lastnight.

[nofishfisherman]

Part of the problem with distance last night was because he was trying to kick it away from their return guys to help out the kick coverage guys. He had to sacrifice distance for getting it over toward one of the sidelines. Not that it helped at all but thats at least part of the reason for the short kicks.

The long returns last night were in no way Longwell's fault. The other guys are paid to tackle and they didn't to much of that.

[Snag]

He should have just kicked it out of bounds. I will say that the long return was an obvious block in the back.

[SledNeck]

Part of the problem with distance last night was because he was trying to kick it away from their return guys to help out the kick coverage guys. He had to sacrifice distance for getting it over toward one of the sidelines. Not that it helped at all but thats at least part of the reason for the short kicks.

The long returns last night were in no way Longwell's fault. The other guys are paid to tackle and they didn't to much of that.

so you think that kicking the ball only to the 20 with no hang time not allowing the special teams to get down the field is not the fault of the kicker?