Special teams cover a lot of different situational football formations. By saying we have horrible special teams, you're generalizing. Let's look at them one by one:
Punt team: very solid with Berry and our punt coverage. This is a strength. 13 downs in the 20 to 1 Touchback. Excellent ratio. And leads the league with a 79 yard punt! Giving time for the coverage team to make plays (11 returns for 86yds).
Kickoff: Very solid getting the kicks in the endzone, and when returns happen, we're getting tackles at the 20 and have had a few inside of the 20. Only one return over the 30 this season. Our unit just went against the top kick return team in the league this week and we shut them down. They were averaging 31 YPR and in 6 returns only averaged 22.
Kicking team (FGs and XPs) Good blocking, snapping, and holding. Kickers have been 'wildly inconsistent' with Scobee, but now with our 4th kicker Boz -> So far so good
for Boz, so the arrow is pointing up, but still I would rate this group as average until we are more consistent in this phase. He is making the tough kicks over 40 yards and has the first over 50yd kick we've made in a while.
Kick Return: mostly touchbacks, but Archer has been able to return 6 kicks now. None of them have been tackled inside the 20, so he's above the line in getting us more yardage than a touchback, and a few good returns over the 30. This is a positive (7th in the league).
Punt return: Aside from AB's ability to make a big play, he's had some nice returns, but the return squad is getting penalized way too much. I think this is the aspect of special teams you are most upset with, and you should be, it's our current weakness. Though we're ranked 13th, we'd have the ability to be much better without the penalties.
2pt conversion: We're currently 3-5 on the year which is above 50%, You must be above 50% in your 2pt conversions to assure the point benefit of going for 2. Though I don't agree with going for it in vs Arizona (due to the specific game situation). We are still ahead of the risk margin and have extra points because of it. The math is 6points on 5 attempts for 2pts is greater than the maximum possible 5points on 5 attempts kicking XPs.
So in conclusion, I'd like to see more positive FGs/XPs in the kicking game, and have the punt return team reduce their penalties. The other 4 phases are doing well.
