One thing I noticed was that both kickers could kick it into the endzone. I know Nugent is great at the field goal part but when you give your team position on the 35 to 40 every kickoff it puts tremendous pressure on your defense. Yeah, the colts coverage sucked on the kickoffs but it wasn't the kickers fault. Anyway, I hope he works on the distance thing in the off season.
I doubt Nugent will ever be able to kick the ball any farther without sacrificing the angle and hang time of the kick. In other words, even if he kicks it farther, it will just be a low kick that the returners will run it back to the 35 anyway because the coverage won't have to to get to him.
Is there any way Graham can learn kickoffs. He'd put the damn thing through the uprights every damn time!
It's the way he's getting coached to kick the ball. I remember he could basically put it through the uprights on a KO at ohio st. They're probably teaching him to get more hangtime on the ball, something kickers can have trouble with.
Different ball is true, but it's only 5 yds closer in college. Guys, remember, they were in a dome yesterday. That's a huge difference.
I've met Mike Nugent.. stood next to him at TC his first year and had a short conversation with him (nobody in the crowd even knew who TF he was.... LOL). But if you're wondering why he can't get the distance on the KO's, it's because he just doesn't have enough "ass." If you ever get a chance to stand next to him, you'll see what I mean. There's not a lot of mass there. I don't know what our stats say are his height and weight, but don't put too much stock in that because it's probably inflated. For some strange reason, he seems to get enough distance (more than enough) on his field goals and his accuracy is exceptionally good, but those KO's are a problem. I'm just as tired as everyone else of seeing opposing teams get a free 10-15 yard advantage on almost every KO. This is a real porblem and something that needs be addressed, IMO.
They tried letting Graham do KO's. He ruptures the seams on the ball on kickoff and the refs didn't like the opposing team having to receive a deflated ball (LOL).
ummm by us getting a new kick off kicker that would mean one of two things thas either we get rid of nugent which i dont see happening or we sign three kickers to the team which takes a position away from somebody else on the team which might be more useful so we have to stick with it for a while
Mike Nugent averaged 61.8 yards per kickoff (or from the 30 to the opponenets 8 yard line). This number was tied for the second lowest in the league. He had 2 touchbacks. Second lowest in the league. BUT he had only a 21.2 yard return average. 9th lowest in the league. We also didn't have and KOs returned for TDs. Yes, Nugent needs some help on his KOs, but there are other areas of the team in more dire need of improvement.
Good call with the numbers... The truth is, that's hat matters... These numbers seem to indicate that his kicks are short, but with better hang time, so it seems like the opponents would be right in the middle of the pack in terms of starting field position.... We have much bigger needs than KOS..
Yes, the most important thing is the average starting field position the opposing team has after KO's. Nugent;s hang time is about 0.5 seconds better than most kickers in the NFL. Rackers gets a lot of touchbacks, but he kicks line drives. As a result, the Cards give up 2 to 3 KO's returned for TD's every year. Yes, it would be nice if he could drill it out of the end zone when we needed it, but it;s the starting field position that counts. Westoff knows what he's doing. Two years in a row without a KO returned for a TD.
LMAO! 227 is a big guy too.... but I lived through watching a few training camp practices with him without getting molested!
This is typical of some posters. They base their judgements strictly on emotion instead of facts. They like style over substance. Thank God this coaching staff bases their judgement on performance. Nugent had only a 21.2yard return average. 9th lowest in the league. We also didn't have and KOs returned for TDs. His kickoffs have 0.5 seconds more hang time. Let's ignore the facts and just knock Nugent based on emotion!
