dragondawg
11-18-2007, 04:37 AM
BY FRANK SCHWAB, THE GAZETTE
ENGLEWOOD - Todd Sauerbrun’s favorite punts are when the Denver Broncos are behind the 50-yard line but not too close to their end zone. There’s no finesse. He just takes two steps, drops the ball and kicks it as far as he can.
“Love them. Love them,” said Sauerbrun, who is averaging 48.5 yards per punt. “Pretty much, I’m going to launch it.”
There’s usually more to punting than that. Whether it’s kicking out of their end zone, trying not to kick it into the opponent’s end zone, kicking away from a dangerous returner or trying to punt when there’s no returner at all, punters have to be prepared.
“All specialists have to perform situation kicks,” Broncos special teams coach Scott O’Brien said. “You have to be able to handle that.”
DROPPING IT IN
When a punt dies near the goal line and the announcers praise the punter for a great kick, here’s the secret: He got lucky.
“After I hit it, it’s out of my hands,” Sauerbrun said. “The shape of that football, you don’t know what it’s going to do. Nobody does. You don’t know what it’s going to do, and it’s all luck of the draw.”
When the Broncos are punting just inside the 50-yard line, Sauerbrun changes his technique to try to get a kick downed inside the 10. He holds the ball higher, about at neck level, before he drops it. Usually, Sauerbrun holds the ball and drops it from hip level. When he drops it and kicks it from a higher level the punt has more arc, which allows his teammates to get in position to down it.
POOCH PUNTS
When the Broncos are inside the opponent’s 40-yard line, Sauerbrun hits what is called a pooch punt. He kicks it softly so it doesn’t go in the end zone for a touchback.
“I personally don’t really like those,” Sauerbrun said. “You’ve really, really got to choke it down. What you have to do is just lean, almost fall backward as you hit it, so you’re not getting that forward trajectory on it. It’s all kind of just straight up in the air.”
BACKED UP
Some of the most dangerous punts are when a punter stands in his end zone and doesn’t have much room. O’Brien said many times the punter has to use what he called a rocker step. He stands with his feet near the back line, shifts his weight back, then forward and punts. Sauerbrun said a key is to not get greedy. He compared punting out of his end zone to a golfer looking at a long fairway, swinging too hard and hitting the ball out of bounds.
“The only thing you can’t do, and it’s really hard, it’s hard for me, when you have all that open field ahead of you is to not swing out of your shoes,” Sauerbrun said. “I do it at times.”
ALL-OUT RUSH
Sometimes near the end of games, an opponent’s only chance to win is to block a punt. So they’ll eschew the returner and send all 11 men at the punter. O’Brien said that’s when a punter can only take one step, instead of his usual two. Just getting the punt away is the only priority.
“If it’s the last punt of the game and he’s got 11 guys coming at him, we can only block 10 and he’s got to beat one of them,” O’Brien said.
DIRECTIONAL KICKS
Punting one way to keep the ball away from a dangerous returner appears easy, but some punters struggle with it. Right-footed punters have a tough time getting their hips through to punt left, O’Brien said, which limits their options. If the wind is blowing the wrong way, a punter might have to try to kick across his body. When Sauerbrun was with New England last year he was told to punt away from Pacman Jones of Tennessee after Jones had an 81-yard touchdown return.
“It’s tough, especially if it’s windy,” Sauerbrun said.
One type of punt that isn’t seen often anymore is the “coffin corner” punt, in which a punter tries to drop a punt out of bounds, inside the 5-yard line.
“Ever since I’ve been playing I haven’t seen it much,” Sauerbrun said.
HANDLING TIME
In practice, Sauerbrun said his only worry is how long it takes him to get off the punt.
From the time he catches the ball from long snapper Mike Leach to when it hits his foot should take about 1.25 seconds. If he takes two seconds, the punt might get blocked. Every time Sauerbrun punts in practice, his handling time is recorded.
“I don’t need to know what the hang time was or anything like that,” Sauerbrun said. “What I ask is ‘What was the get-off?’ If it’s a good ball, you can tell. But you don’t know if you were too long getting it off.”
Because the NFL has more fast players than college, young pro punters often have to make adjustments to get rid of the ball quicker.
“Probably every punter coming into this league from college had to cut down their handling time,” O’Brien said.
http://www.gazette.com/sports/sauerbrun_29860___article.html/punt_ball.html
ENGLEWOOD - Todd Sauerbrun’s favorite punts are when the Denver Broncos are behind the 50-yard line but not too close to their end zone. There’s no finesse. He just takes two steps, drops the ball and kicks it as far as he can.
“Love them. Love them,” said Sauerbrun, who is averaging 48.5 yards per punt. “Pretty much, I’m going to launch it.”
There’s usually more to punting than that. Whether it’s kicking out of their end zone, trying not to kick it into the opponent’s end zone, kicking away from a dangerous returner or trying to punt when there’s no returner at all, punters have to be prepared.
“All specialists have to perform situation kicks,” Broncos special teams coach Scott O’Brien said. “You have to be able to handle that.”
DROPPING IT IN
When a punt dies near the goal line and the announcers praise the punter for a great kick, here’s the secret: He got lucky.
“After I hit it, it’s out of my hands,” Sauerbrun said. “The shape of that football, you don’t know what it’s going to do. Nobody does. You don’t know what it’s going to do, and it’s all luck of the draw.”
When the Broncos are punting just inside the 50-yard line, Sauerbrun changes his technique to try to get a kick downed inside the 10. He holds the ball higher, about at neck level, before he drops it. Usually, Sauerbrun holds the ball and drops it from hip level. When he drops it and kicks it from a higher level the punt has more arc, which allows his teammates to get in position to down it.
POOCH PUNTS
When the Broncos are inside the opponent’s 40-yard line, Sauerbrun hits what is called a pooch punt. He kicks it softly so it doesn’t go in the end zone for a touchback.
“I personally don’t really like those,” Sauerbrun said. “You’ve really, really got to choke it down. What you have to do is just lean, almost fall backward as you hit it, so you’re not getting that forward trajectory on it. It’s all kind of just straight up in the air.”
BACKED UP
Some of the most dangerous punts are when a punter stands in his end zone and doesn’t have much room. O’Brien said many times the punter has to use what he called a rocker step. He stands with his feet near the back line, shifts his weight back, then forward and punts. Sauerbrun said a key is to not get greedy. He compared punting out of his end zone to a golfer looking at a long fairway, swinging too hard and hitting the ball out of bounds.
“The only thing you can’t do, and it’s really hard, it’s hard for me, when you have all that open field ahead of you is to not swing out of your shoes,” Sauerbrun said. “I do it at times.”
ALL-OUT RUSH
Sometimes near the end of games, an opponent’s only chance to win is to block a punt. So they’ll eschew the returner and send all 11 men at the punter. O’Brien said that’s when a punter can only take one step, instead of his usual two. Just getting the punt away is the only priority.
“If it’s the last punt of the game and he’s got 11 guys coming at him, we can only block 10 and he’s got to beat one of them,” O’Brien said.
DIRECTIONAL KICKS
Punting one way to keep the ball away from a dangerous returner appears easy, but some punters struggle with it. Right-footed punters have a tough time getting their hips through to punt left, O’Brien said, which limits their options. If the wind is blowing the wrong way, a punter might have to try to kick across his body. When Sauerbrun was with New England last year he was told to punt away from Pacman Jones of Tennessee after Jones had an 81-yard touchdown return.
“It’s tough, especially if it’s windy,” Sauerbrun said.
One type of punt that isn’t seen often anymore is the “coffin corner” punt, in which a punter tries to drop a punt out of bounds, inside the 5-yard line.
“Ever since I’ve been playing I haven’t seen it much,” Sauerbrun said.
HANDLING TIME
In practice, Sauerbrun said his only worry is how long it takes him to get off the punt.
From the time he catches the ball from long snapper Mike Leach to when it hits his foot should take about 1.25 seconds. If he takes two seconds, the punt might get blocked. Every time Sauerbrun punts in practice, his handling time is recorded.
“I don’t need to know what the hang time was or anything like that,” Sauerbrun said. “What I ask is ‘What was the get-off?’ If it’s a good ball, you can tell. But you don’t know if you were too long getting it off.”
Because the NFL has more fast players than college, young pro punters often have to make adjustments to get rid of the ball quicker.
“Probably every punter coming into this league from college had to cut down their handling time,” O’Brien said.
http://www.gazette.com/sports/sauerbrun_29860___article.html/punt_ball.html