Texans Sign P Donnie Jones

[CloakNNNdagger]

Originally Posted by Playoffs

ProFootballFocus's punter rankings for 2011:

T12 Donnie Jones

27 Brett Hartmann

31 Brad Maynard
32 Matt Turk

Jones was 6th in 2010 and 7th in 2009.

He led the league in attempts last year.

On his drop in production last year, Jones said, "They're looking for a way, I mean, we're trying to win games. They wanted every ball punted out of bounds. They basically didn't want a punt return to cost us another game. That's totally understandable. It's just a difficult task every time you get in there to punt the ball out of bounds, and still get a good yardage out of it."

Thanks for the post.

But things went awry in 2011, with the Rams allowing two touchdowns on punt returns (both to Arizona's Patrick Peterson) and Jones' net average dropping to 37.0, his lowest net since 2006 in Miami.

It's important to realize, though, that the long punt returns mentioned in the article were entirely due to the Rams' swiss cheese coverage team.

Rams lose on 99-yard punt return in OT
BY JIM THOMAS | Posted: Sunday, November 6, 2011 5:15 pm

GLENDALE, ARIZ. -- So much for what the Rams accomplished last week against New Orleans. So much for any November momentum.

It all vanished into the desert evening at University of Phoenix Stadium with Arizona's Patrick Peterson twisting and turning 99 yards through the Rams coverage team for his third punt return touchdown of the season to defeat the Rams 19-13 in overtime.

The other of the 2 long punt returns by Peterson mentioned in the article was a 45 yder.........that was again poorly covered, resulting in an 80 yd TD.

Cardinals and Peterson Burn Rams Again
Posted on November 28, 2011

For the second time in 21 days the St. Louis Rams found a way to lose to a bad Arizona Cardinals football team. The loss drops the Rams to 2-9 for the season. Head coach Steve Spagnuolo’s hot seat should now resemble The Great Chicago Fire of 1871.

Once again the coaching decisions during the game were flat out bewildering. In the first contest the Rams decided to go for 4th and 1 instead of attempting a 50 yard field goal with 1:41 to play. The Rams then had a 42 yard field goal blocked as time expired. Then in over time the Rams punted to lightning quick Patrick Peterson who returned it 99 yards for the game winning touchdown.

Flash forward to Sunday when Spagnuolo was once again at his best. The Rams who had 1st and goal from the three yard line turned the opportunity into 2nd and goal from the 17 and let 31 seconds run off the clock as coach Spagnuolo said their was some disarray! The Rams ended up kicking a field goal on 3rd down to take a 10-3 lead into half time.

Midway through the 3rd quarter Donnie Jones punts the ball straight down the middle of the field to Patrick Peterson who once again burned the Rams with an 80 yard touchdown return to put the Cardinals up 20-10. Spagnuolo in the press conference said the plan was to not kick it down the middle and that Donnie Jones miss hit it. Spags take some blame for something, before this game even started you should have already told the special teams coach and Donnie Jones that each and every punt better go out of bounds, you are to blame. There was no miss hit the ball was a beautiful 45 yard spiral down the middle of the field. Jones punted seven times during the game and only one was out of bounds.

link

I believe we may have a keeper.

[CloakNNNdagger]

Dug up this other interesting stat on our new punter.

Jones has a rare blocked punt
FootballStL

Posted on December 12, 2011 at 9:19 PM


(FootballStL) -- You have heard it before, but another St. Louis Rams opponent scores a touchdown in a punting situation. This time it was a touchdown scored on a rare blocked punt rather than on a long punt return from an elusive returner (see Patrick Peterson).

So how rare is it for punter Donnie Jones to have a blocked punt? Well, it was the first time in 425 punts since Jones joined the Rams in 2007.

Jones has had only three punts blocked in 115 career games. Jones has also recently been battling an ankle injury that limited him in practice a couple of weeks ago.

[Playoffs]

Originally Posted by CloakNNNdagger

Dug up this other interesting stat on our new punter.

Definite upgrade.

[ckhouston]

Kicks with his left leg ... doesn't that put an opposite spin on the ball and make it possibly more difficult to catch?

[Dutchrudder]

Originally Posted by ckhouston

Kicks with his left leg ... doesn't that put an opposite spin on the ball and make it possibly more difficult to catch?

That is the case with QBs, but I don't know that it is with punters.

[CloakNNNdagger]

Originally Posted by ckhouston

Kicks with his left leg ... doesn't that put an opposite spin on the ball and make it possibly more difficult to catch?

Originally Posted by Dutchrudder

That is the case with QBs, but I don't know that it is with punters.

Probably is.

Lefty LSU punter messes with minds of returners

Posted on January 2, 2012

Brad Wing made his impression in the first Alabama-LSU game with a few clutch punts on Nov. 5. See what makes his style different than others in today’s print story:

TUSCALOOSA — The weather was just right for fielding punts Saturday in Tuscaloosa.

The wind and temperature mimicked the Superdome atmosphere Alabama will encounter in the Jan. 9 BCS title game with LSU. Just one thing was missing.

There just isn’t a punter around who can boot it like LSU freshman Brad Wing. It’s not just the length, but the English the Australian-born player puts on the ball that makes him unlike anyone else Alabama faces. Like a southpaw on a pitching mound, the left-footed Wing does something different to the ball every time he kicks it.

“Hard to simulate,” Alabama coach Nick Saban said. “And he also can do what we call the Aussie kick where he drops the nose of the ball and kicks it in the red zone. He’s awfully good at that. He hit a couple of those on us in the first game.”

If it weren’t for LSU kicker Drew Alleman making three field goals, Wing could’ve been the most important player in the Tigers’ 9-6 overtime win at Alabama on Nov. 5. Four of his six punts landed inside the 20, including two inside the 5.

A 22-yard shank and short field kept his average punt to 38.2, but explosive Alabama returner Marquis Maze didn’t gain a single yard that night. A 73-yarder sailed over Maze’s head in the fourth quarter, quelling Alabama’s shot at scoring the go-ahead points before overtime.

The left-footed kick puts a different spin on the ball, sending it counterclockwise and fading to the left.