Blocked Punts tutorial

Alan (Alan Pihlak, commissioner of the BBL) suggested I write a little monograph about blocked punts to the BBL.

considering that my team has blocked over 20 punts this season, and has had 0 punts blocked...I suppose I have some insight as to how to block punts, and how to avoid having punts blocked.....

Everything below also applies to some degree to blocked FG's and PAT's.

Blocking Punts

the primary issue on blocking punts is the man at the DT2 position in your PUNT defenses. The critical issue is to replace this player with a player who has the best combination of AC, AG, SP and ST.

AC is the most important of these skills.

For example, I use WR1 Ray Zorich to fill this spot. His #'s are

    1   86-94-84-59-86-85-44-44

His AC of 94, combined with 80+ in SP and AG allow him to penetrate the OL before the OL can block him. His ST of 59 is satisfactory, as this is more an issue of quickness than strength.

All told, Zorich has blocked 20+ punts, recovering 6 for TD's. That works out to a +5 points per game JUST on punts blocked & recovered for TD's.

I have not got specific #'s, but I believe that Apache Junction has scored on over 95% of the possesions immediatly following a blocked punt, with an average starting field position of inside the defenses' 30 yard line.

Avoiding Blocked Punts

There are 2 areas of concern in avoiding having your punts blocked:

The PUNTER

the primary skills for a punter is ST and DI. However a punter's AC, SP and AG are very important in avoiding blocks. Primary amoung block avoidance skills is AC.

In particular, skills lower than 40 in these area's make one particularly susceptable to blocked kicks

The PUNT PROTECTION

THE main problem with Punt Protection is that the Center is bracketed by LB1 and LB2. These 2 players have MOVE TO logic and run straight down field to cover the Punt returner.

This creates a massive hole up the middle I have found that by replaceing the 2 LB's with OL that have above average AG, but poor SP, it leaves them in possition to help block for the punt.

This is all rather a simplification of the whole issue, but does cover the essential aspects.

Bryan
Apache Junction

[IFL Coaches Clinic Page] | [IFL Home Page]

091796