Let's talk drunk strategy: purposely duff a punt?

Submitted by Red_Lee on

3 beers in and I gotta get this off my mind. I've thought about it before, but do teams ever purposely duff a punt?

 

I'm watching the MSU-ND circus and I see how much chaos a ~30 yard wobbly punt can cause. I have seen them more often on rugby punts, but I feel like it could be a good trick play to try this on purpose.

 

Scenario: 4th and 5 on your own 40. Don't want to try a fake punt, so how about take a little less risk and punt the ball very short and quick right into the coverage?

 

I'm sure it's harder to execute on purpose than it is to actually mess up a punt, but I feel like these "chaos punts" can give the punting team a decent chance at a turnover without risking all of the field position. Sure, you may only net 20 yards, but hell that's a small price to pay for a chance at a turnover.

 

Just my thoughts. What do you guys think? I'm goin  back to the Dirty Bastard bottles.

 

EDIT: To clarify, I'm attempting to have the punter hit somebody on the return team with the ball, causing a muffed punt. I'm not talking a pooch punt. I'm talking about a situation where the other team is expecting a normal punt, only to have the ball land 30 yards downfield in the middle of retreating punt team blockers.

MGoBoard

Wisconsin Wolverine

September 21st, 2013 at 6:39 PM ^

I don't know what's been going on with me lately, but it seems like if I have 2 or more micros during the day, I'm just tired for the rest of the day.  If I'm out at night having fun, then I can drink and stay energized, but for some reason it just saps my strength if I'm sitting around.  Maybe I'm just getting old.  Anyway, point is I totally understand a 3 beer haze.

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LSAClassOf2000

September 21st, 2013 at 5:42 PM ^

With a pooch punt, you intentionally kick it short to mitigate the possibility of a long return. The whole idea of coverage, as I understand it, would be to simply swarm the unlucky person who gets to attempt the return. 

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Red_Lee

September 21st, 2013 at 5:46 PM ^

It would be more about getting the ball into the return team's blockiing area, not to the actual return man in hopes of causing a muffed punt. The pooch punt, at least in my eyes, has always been when you're in that area just too far for a field goal and you want excellent placement/chance to down the punt close to the goal line.

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Red_Lee

September 21st, 2013 at 6:02 PM ^

I'm trying to force the coverage team to muff the punt. I guess I didn't make that clear. WIth the shorter punts the ball tends to land in the middle of the coverage team when they're expecting a longer punt.

 

It's not a pooch punt that I'm talking about. It's about surprising the return team with a shorter, quicker punt when they were expecting a booming punt.

 

So UM is on their own 40, WIle is out their looking to boom one. Instead he "duffs" one 25 yards to the opposing 35 yard line, right in the middle of the blockers for the return team who are expecting the ball to be punted to the 10 yard line. The ball has a chance of bouncing off of one of the blockers for the return team.

 

I feel like this is less risky than going for it on your own 40 or a fake punt. But I guess it would be harder to execute. I just feel the major risk is only shanking the punt 20 yards but the reward is getting the ball back in enemy territory. A failed fake punt or 4th down conversion nets no yards.

 

Am I making sense yet? I'm on my fourth so maybe I'm getting clearer...or less clear.

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EGD

September 21st, 2013 at 5:55 PM ^

On fourth and five, I think you're probably better off just running your normal offense rather than trying a "chaos punt." Unless you are facing Akron.

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Jacoby

September 21st, 2013 at 6:06 PM ^

This is a good question and I've thought about it too, but from a slightly different angle. Rather than punt for 20 or 30 yards, would it be possible to line drive a punt right at a near-enough defender who cannot get out of the way or catch it cleanly. The hope would be to bounce it off one of them in order to make the ball live and unrecovered. The problem is that a punt must go five yards beyond the neutral zone (I think NCAA Approved Ruling 6-3-1, but I could be wrong). I think it would be too tough to get a punter to bounce it off a defender five yards beyond the neutral zone. If someone were to try it, I'd suggest kicking the far end of the football so that it kind of helicopters wildly into the defender, and have your best hands guys descending on the spot.

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Tha Quiet Storm

September 21st, 2013 at 6:14 PM ^

This is a really interesting idea. On the flip side though, if one of those guys on the return team is paying attention and fields the short punt, he might only have to beat the punter to take it back to the house.

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Red_Lee

September 21st, 2013 at 6:18 PM ^

I didn't think of the improved odds for the actual punt return. My plan is banking on this trick play being used very rarely, but yeah, if a guy is paying attention it could get ugly. But isn't that true for all trick plays?

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schreibee

September 21st, 2013 at 6:28 PM ^

I have actually NEVER thought of this before, but y'know- something like it might just work! People keep pointing out that Wile is already kicking them short & it sucks... but aren't all his shanks going out of bounds, not bouncing into the midst of retreating blockers? Said blockers are looking at the people they're supposed to neutralize on the return, so a wildly bouncing ball could land and bounce off one very easily- IF a punter could accurately land it there! Not sure I've seen any evidence Wile could?!

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MgoBadFish

September 21st, 2013 at 6:55 PM ^

I have seen the short punt hit unaware players and had this thought as well, not sure if it was called or just luck. I do know of a high school team I have reffed that runs rugby style punt and the punter has a read to throw the ball if the return team is blocking the gunners too aggressively, as long as linemen don't release, it's an easy pass interference flag.

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Blarvey

September 21st, 2013 at 7:09 PM ^

Drunk strategy? How about a 2-2-7 defense?

Have the two DLs shoot the B gaps and use one LB on a delayed blitz where the pocket opens up with the other LB playing man on the RB. If there is no RB and a mobile QB, use the 2nd LB to spy the QB, else cover the short middle.

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