Odd punt return/drop from the CU game

**d4nim4l** · 11-17-2009, 01:22 PM

From the way the play looked it appeared that CU was supposed to be kicking towards O'Connell near the sidelines. Which would make sense. He is the least dangerous of the two and kicking to the sidelines provides containment.

However, it looked like there was miscommunication somewhere along the whole thing and the punter kicked it like normal and right to Lenz. From there we know the rest.

I am wagering he pulled the freshman mistake of seeing the ball, seeing the open field and then muffing the catch. He's done it on some passes this year too.

**guitarchitect7** · 11-17-2009, 02:05 PM

Originally Posted by ISUFan22

Almost forgot about this...the punt that Lenz muffed against CU on Saturday. The odd thing with it (other than the drop), was the entire CU coverage team was headed toward another one of our players that was back on the put, on along the ISU sidelines. I guess I wasn't looking specifically at either guy - were we going for some sort of "fake-'em-out" on that play?

If so, it worked perfectly (other than the drop, of course) as Lenz had a ton of open field in front of him.

First time I've seen something like that, ISU or otherwise.

I'm probably repeating something here, but...

Both Lenz and O'Connell were back for the punt. I never looked at as a fake, but looking back that could have been the case. I thought it was just trying to cover a shorter field due to a short punt - have someone in position quicker than usual. Regardless, why the play happened O'Connell did act like he was fielding the punt (hence I could see it as a fake now), maybe this is why Lenz missed the punt as he waited longer to field it.

**Cybyassociation** · 11-17-2009, 05:06 PM

I'm guessing the punter called punt left and it came off his foot punt right. So not necessarily the kick coverage teams fault...although at least someone should have been able to find the ball.

**ajk4st8** · 11-17-2009, 06:31 PM

It looked to me as if the blockers went to the 'fake' return man and CU players followed. Leaving the actual return man WIDE open. Fantastic coaching.