Our Special Teams Under Ray Rychleski And Onside Kick Recoveries

[chad72]

Texans, let us say are within a FG of the Colts in a tight game, will try the onside kick and we better be prepared in game 1. Here is the root of my concern. The only time I have seen Ray Rychleski be prepared is if he is able to have timeouts in the bag to take one in an OBVIOUS onside kick situation and he started that last year, taking timeouts after seeing onside kick alignment, this one was an obvious onside kick situation (though in pre-season) but he and the players were not prepared.

2009: Lost onside kick recovery to the Seahawks once, won onside kick recovery in the Seahawks game with Tamme batting it out of bound. Then lost onside kick recovery to the Titans in our 27-17 win but foiled several 4th downs for VY. Then lost the infamous onside kick recovery in SB 44. Record was 1-3 on onside kicks

2010: We will however dread the non-obvious cases. Remember, the Colts in last year's Texans game 1 of the season, McAfee almost recovered a surprise onside kick but Gary Kubiak recognized it before it happened and called timeout based on ST alignment. That is what an alert coach does. Then came the Chiefs game, the Chiefs recovered the opening kickoff onside kick but luckily for us, it had not crossed 10 yards. Again, we were unprepared. We lost the onside kick in the Bengals game and Palmer was sacked thankfully, otherwise we could have lost that game. Then, it dawned on Ray Rychleski to call a timeout before the Jags onside kick, Hagler recovers the onside kick attempt after the Jags game and scores a TD.

Every one of them above is a regular season example, so let us not kid ourselves to thinking that this pre-season stuff won't happen again.

[GoColts8818]

Texans, let us say are within a FG of the Colts in a tight game, will try the onside kick and we better be prepared in game 1. Here is the root of my concern. The only time I have seen Ray Rychleski be prepared is if he is able to have timeouts in the bag to take one in an OBVIOUS onside kick situation and he started that last year, taking timeouts after seeing onside kick alignment, this one was an obvious onside kick situation (though in pre-season) but he and the players were not prepared.

2009: Lost onside kick recovery to the Seahawks once, won onside kick recovery in the Seahawks game with Tamme batting it out of bound. Then lost onside kick recovery to the Titans in our 27-17 win but foiled several 4th downs for VY. Then lost the infamous onside kick recovery in SB 44. Record was 1-3 on onside kicks

2010: We will however dread the non-obvious cases. Remember, the Colts in last year's Texans game 1 of the season, McAfee almost recovered a surprise onside kick but Gary Kubiak recognized it before it happened and called timeout based on ST alignment. That is what an alert coach does. Then came the Chiefs game, the Chiefs recovered the opening kickoff onside kick but luckily for us, it had not crossed 10 yards. Again, we were unprepared. We lost the onside kick in the Bengals game and Palmer was sacked thankfully, otherwise we could have lost that game. Then, it dawned on Ray Rychleski to call a timeout before the Jags onside kick, Hagler recovers the onside kick attempt after the Jags game and scores a TD.

Every one of them above is a regular season example, so let us not kid ourselves to thinking that this pre-season stuff won't happen again.

I get where you going with most of this but as for the KC game KC did recover it but only because the Colts players were around it waving their arms saying it hadn't gone 10 yards. They recongized that one which is what I think you are trying to get at but they just waved everyone off it. It was the one bright spot (other than Tamme knocking it out of bounds and Hagler having the best onside recovary ever) here.

[chad72]

I get where you going with most of this but as for the KC game KC did recover it but only because the Colts players were around it waving their arms saying it hadn't gone 10 yards. They recongized that one which is what I think you are trying to get at but they just waved everyone off it. It was the one bright spot (other than Tamme knocking it out of bounds and Hagler having the best onside recovary ever) here.

Yeah, it is like that trump card that when used, has a great chance of success vs the Colts, the onside kick is that right now. Thankfully, we don't have to play Jeff Fisher, he might start off with 3 onside kicks, lol.

[GoColts8818]

Yeah, it is like that trump card that when used, has a great chance of success vs the Colts, the onside kick is that right now. Thankfully, we don't have to play Jeff Fisher, he might start off with 3 onside kicks, lol.

No I agree with it's a concern I was just pointing out the KC was an example of the Colts doing the right thing on the play. They were on top of it that game but you are right this have become a comon problem against the Colts dating back to Dungy being the coach.

[chad72]

No I agree with it's a concern I was just pointing out the KC was an example of the Colts doing the right thing on the play. They were on top of it that game but you are right this have become a comon problem against the Colts dating back to Dungy being the coach.

Eric Foster vs the Cowboys, that jumping penalty that made a FG into a TD by prolonging the drive, not sure if that can be attributed to ST coaching or just a dumb mistake by the player. Our ST coaching, I thought will get better once Russ Purnell was let go but it has not gotten better.

[GoColts8818]

Eric Foster vs the Cowboys, that jumping penalty that made a FG into a TD by prolonging the drive, not sure if that can be attributed to ST coaching or just a dumb mistake by the player. Our ST coaching, I thought will get better once Russ Purnell was let go but it has not gotten better.

I think it was more of just a dumb mistake by a player. When the same flag happens over and over (excluding something like a false start) then I blame coaching. When it happens once I blame that on a player messing up. It happens. Foster picked a very bad time to do it (not like there is a good time) but it's part of the game.

[indy_nick]

+1 for the thread. good points. Something needs to be done to rectify this situation for sure.

[chad72]

Put Tamme, Clark and Wayne on the hands team to recover an onside kick. I remember Harrison being on the hands team to recover onside kicks, anyone else remember that? If Harrison can be on it, so can other starting wideouts.

Gonzo and Collie, it might end their season, lol, one hit during ST (j/k). Garcon is a big no-no on the hands team .

[GoColts8818]

Put Tamme, Clark and Wayne on the hands team to recover an onside kick. I remember Harrison being on the hands team to recover onside kicks, anyone else remember that? If Harrison can be on it, so can other starting wideouts.

Gonzo and Collie, it might end their season, lol, one hit during ST (j/k). Garcon is a big no-no on the hands team .

Well last was a pre-season game so I don' think they are going to use the front liners for the hands team in a pre-season game. When they put the hands team out there those guys are normally out there. There a few thing to be careful about. 1. You don't want your star players getting blown up on kickoffs. 2. If they kick deep how good of blockers are they? I know kickoffs are going to be down some but I think you are going to start seeing more of what McAfee tried on one kick last night he tried to to drop it at the one to let the guy bring it out.

I think the more realistic option is to have our normal return guys playing more heads up and being ready for onside kicks. It's clear teams view it as a big weakness of ours and why not? If I were the Colts coaches I would start running drills with them right now and tell them to be ready for EVERY kickoff to be an onside kick.

I know the really bad one was the Super Bowl but you know I though Baskett did a good job on that play of being heads up for the kick. The problem was that he refs took forever to get it unpiled and you know what they say about piles in the NFL.

[21isSuperman]

I agree with the OP. Rychleski hasn't done much to impress as our special teams coordinator. Everyone was excited for his hiring because he seems like the kind of guy who would yell and scream to get you pumped up, but he hasn't produced anything good. With that said, the special teams were bad when Purnell was here too. So that raises the question, is the problem with the players or did we just have bad luck by hiring 2 coaches who run poor schemes?

[GoColts8818]

I agree with the OP. Rychleski hasn't done much to impress as our special teams coordinator. Everyone was excited for his hiring because he seems like the kind of guy who would yell and scream to get you pumped up, but he hasn't produced anything good. With that said, the special teams were bad when Purnell was here too. So that raises the question, is the problem with the players or did we just have bad luck by hiring 2 coaches who run poor schemes?

I think people were more excited about Purnell being let go than they were about him being hired.

I think it's a little of both. The Colts have just never valued special teams and when you are a team that builds like the Colts do and has lots of very young guys trying to speical teams it's hard to argue that players and lack of talent isn't part of the issue. Still there are signs that coaching just hasn't worked either. Namely the fact they don't look to adjust at all to covering onside kicks. So I think it's a mix of both.

[21isSuperman]

I think people were more excited about Purnell being let go than they were about him being hired.

I think it's a little of both. The Colts have just never valued special teams and when you are a team that builds like the Colts do and has lots of very young guys trying to speical teams it's hard to argue that players and lack of talent isn't part of the issue. Still there are signs that coaching just hasn't worked either. Namely the fact they don't look to adjust at all to covering onside kicks. So I think it's a mix of both.

Last year, we had a ton of injuries so we had many guys playing offense or defense AND special teams, some even as starters. With that kind of situation, you get guys who are tired and don't execute as well. If Rychleski doesn't show some improvement in the special teams play this year, he should be replaced.