When John Harbaugh was hired as head coach before the 2008 season, his expertise was special teams. Naturally, Baltimore Ravens fans expected extremely good special teams play from the home team. In 2009, special teams play was solid, not special. Part of the reason for just solid special teams were injuries and a transition and place kicker. Matt Stover’s contract expired at the end of the 2008 and the Ravens went younger and cheaper. There will be improvement in 2010 and I don’t think Ravens fans would expect any less.
Kicker – Harbaugh opted to go with Steve Hauschka to begin the year as the Ravens starting kicker. Hauschka had a rough start to the year missing several field goals wide left. He possibly cost the Ravens two games within the first six. The most notable game, of course, was Week 6 against the Vikings when Hauschka pushed the game-winning field goal left dropping the Ravens to 3-3 before their bye week. For the last seven games, the Ravens signed Billy Cundiff. Cundiff shored up the kicking game and helped push the Ravens into the playoffs. For now, it is unknown if the Ravens will re-sign Cundiff, but it wouldn’t be a bad idea.
Punter – Sam Koch was his usual, efficient self in 2009. Koch routinely pushed opponents far back in their own territory the entire season. However, Koch did have a punt blocked. His punt average was very close to his career average. I thought Koch did an especially good job being the holder for each of Baltimore’s kickers. Not much more to say about Koch except I think he will be fine next season and the Ravens will be happy to have him back.
Long Snapper – Matt Katula had an uneven season as the Ravens long snapper, to say the least. At the beginning of the year, Baltimore’s woes in the kicking game started with Hauschka, at the end of the season, the blame could be placed squarely on Katula. Katula had several bad snaps on field goals that Koch had to handle or forced the kicker’s timing to be off. In addition, on punts Katula routinely snapped the ball wildly to Koch forcing the timing being off. I will chalk this up to the tendinitis in his forearm and elbow and think he will have a bounce back season in 2010.
Kick Returner – The Baltimore Ravens used a variety of kick returners this past season for a few reasons. Chris Carr was a free agent acquisition before 2009 to solidify the nickel package on defense and to return punts and kicks. Carr wound up being average returning kicks and even cost the Ravens an opening game possession when he lost a fumble in Week 4 against New England. Eventually Lardarius Webb took over and excelled in that role. Webb was very good returning kicks even going the distance one time this season. Sadly, Webb’s season came to an end when he tore his ACL. With Webb out, Jalen Parmele took over. Parmele was very good returning kicks and may have locked down a spot as kick returner for 2010. After Webb and Parmele took over the kick return job, Baltimore’s field position improved and aided their playoff run. I don’t know what the coaching staff is thinking for 2010, but Parmele or Webb returning kicks won’t be a bad thing.
Punt Returner – Carr also was signed to return punts for the Baltimore Ravens. He started out very slowly fair catching most of the punts in the first half of the season, however, towards the end of the season, Carr was following his blocks and getting chunks of yards on returns. His development as punt returner was a good thing to see as he will be back in 2010 to return punts and hopefully make less fair catches.
The Ravens special teams is a very solid unit and should aim to even be stronger in the upcoming season. With Webb back the kick return game will be a strong point for Baltimore. Katula will hopefully be healed up and the kicking issues will be solved. I would expect the Ravens to sign Cundiff and have an undrafted free agent kicker to provide competition in camp. Koch will be back and have another solid season.
And thus my tongue-in-check name, Special Teams Guru…
Billick was chastised for his lack of offense during his tenure here as a "offensive guru", yet somehow Harbaugh, the former special teams and defensive backs coach gets a "free pass" on his mediocre special teams and defensive back play. While Cundiff was an upgrade over the guy Harbaugh picked, Hauschka, he was far from automatic being only 8-13 on field goals longer than 30 yards. Also, didn't we not re-sign Stover because of his inability to hit long field goals? Hmmm…goes back to any earlier discussion that Stover's not returning had more to do with clashing egos than anything else.
If Stover had an ego it must have only come out under Harbaugh. EVERYONE says he's an incredibly humble guy and I read that his relationship between the players and their new head coach, Harbs, was huge in the transition from Billick to Harbs.
Stover has always had a very strong personality in the locker room.
He was no different than many of the other veterans who bristled at Harbaugh's approach.
I always laughed when reading about the vets whining about Harbaugh. They themselves are a huge reason why Billick was canned. Did they think ownership was gonna bring in another Billick type? That's not the way it works and they found that out real quick.
Oh, I believe the ego clash was totally one-sided. I think Harbs viewed Stover as a "hold over" to the Billick era. Aside from Ray Lewis, who he could NOT release, he has tried to move those guys who were the "faces of the franchise" under Billick.
Here we go again talking Harbaugh…
I am hearing bad things about Webb's chances of being back on the field next year, or at least for the first part of the year. It is a ways away, but he suffered the injury so late in the season that he is likely to miss time. Unfortunate because it also creates the need for another capable body in the secondary.
Yeah we're kind of back to the same issue the Ravens had this season. If Webb returns in 2010 it won't be until at least week 9 and who knows what you can expect out of guy who's spent half of pro career rehabbing.
The Ravens can't go into next season believing the secondary is where it needs to be based on the last four games, as I hear fans consistently referring to and bragging about. Most good teams get better in a hurry when they play the Lions, Bears, a Steeler team with a banged up Roethlisberger and Ward, and then the Charlie Frye led Raiders. This secondary needs a lot of help along with the d-line or rush linebackers, however Old Man Mattison plans to align his front 7.
Again, I'm not trying to be negative, just realistic. This team was 1-6 against playoff teams this year. Pittsburgh doesn't have too many off years, the Colts will always be competitive with Manning, Brady will be two years removed from major surgery, Rivers will be tough again in SD, and Palmer is a good QB in Cincy. This team has to improve in the secondary and via their pass rush or the trend of losing to quality QBs will continue.
So we can sugar coat things and say "I want all 53 of these mighty men back next year", but if they come back with this same squad, expect similar results.
Parmalee provided a real spark in the return game. I was NOT a fan of using what turned out to be one of our best d-backs as a kick returner. Parmalee was what, a 3rd string RB? He turned out to be pretty decent as a returner. That's the guy they should be using…are you listening Harbs…