We punt the ball. It travels about 60 yards in the air and the punt returner has to back up. The catch is muffed. The ball literally bounces off the punt returner's hands and hits the ground. End result? Punt return for a touchdown.

Do we need a new special teams coach?

They dumped Kwan and signed guys like Davis, Stovall, Logan, etc...all because they're excellent on STs...but our STs have been awful for years and years

I'll take any coach that says, "Dont punt to Hester".

Hester did nothing special on his TD, our coverage was awful

There's bigger problems than the special teams at this point.

What has Logan shown to deserve the love he gets from fans. I've rarely seen anything worth half a crap from the guy. He's not even a useful wr, rb, or cb. Hell, he's not even a coverage gunner. He doesn't have great hands, he doesn't have very good vision, he's not that fast, and has a minimal 2nd gear

Yes.

And the new kick-off rule has basically made Logan pointless.

I'd buy that if we were'nt talking about the best returner in NFL history. Most guys would've fallen on that or messed it up somehow.

we wondered about this at times in the preseason - what would the effect of the new rules have on Logan? I mentioned that he is a better KR than a PR - mostly bc as a PR he does not have exceptional hands, fair catches the ball inside the 10, and isnt very good at coming up and fair catching short punts. the answer is that he is nowwhere near as effective as he s been in the past. he does not get many shots to return kicks and he s not a very good punt return when you look past the average and consider the overall responsibilities of the position.

the head coach now needs to get involved in the special teams coaching. Ryan Donuhue is a rookie with a lot of talent but he continues to outkick coverages and allegedely isnt always punting to where the coverage is supposed to be. Malone was no different today except maybe he runs faster than Donuhue. The sp teams personnel is killing this team, Ekejiuba was the best special teamer we had and he s on IR. Then you have Rashied Davis and Stovall both marginal WRs who are on the team bc special teams. But the special teams stink and these guys dont catch when they are in the game at receiver so they are hurting you in two spots. putting starting LBs like Tulloch and Durant on punt coverage has to be considered. I know Levy is on the punt team as is Carpenter Im not sure the others are but both tend to take the path of least resistance in virtually every situation which is especially bad on kick coverage and are not fundamentally sound players. Those two especially need to be off of the special teams.

You could of put a 10 year old as coach and he would know NOT to punt to Hester.... embarrassing!

true. But we did a good job against him last time

First....I don't blame the COACH for the ball going to Hester. It was apparent that the punter was trying to punt OB, but just didn't get it there. Malone was just signed, so I'm willing to cut him a bit of a break. That, and the fact that the wind could have been pushing the ball into the field of play.

Second....I DO blame the coach for the poor, poor job on coverage. Guys weren't disciplined, leaving their lanes and basically gift-wrapping the returns for Hester. Kick coverage and punt coverage is all about disciplined maintenance of your area. The Lions failed, and have been failing at that aspect all season long. Hester made them pay.

Get rid of the ST coach. It's obvious these players aren't responding to him, or simply he isn't teaching them the right things. Whatever the case, dump him.

Because last time, WE DIDN'T KICK OR PUNT TO HIM. <---- Caps for emphasis, not yelling.

Hester's a great player (and the Chicago special teams unit is a great unit), don't get me wrong, but I still think the big returns were more about our coverage than any great moves or blocks. The lanes our players took were awful - converging on a point so that one move takes 5 players out of the game. And guys like Carpenter allowed themselves to get taken out by blocks way too easily.

If the only lesson the Lions take out of Sunday on special teams is "don't punt to Hester" then our coverage will continue to be awful.

I am kinda suprised people are calling for the firing of crossman and not LINEHAN..I had hopes for linehan but i cant stand watching what i have called our "horizontal offense"...nothing in our offense is north south..always in shotgun.quick passes to the flats.
We are not using the talent we have on offense. we need to get vertical in passing game. and use best as a great change if pace back in a power run game.