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http://www.stltoday.com/sports/foot...cle_2d14433a-eeae-539e-85de-3221e82742f9.html
In early October, Rams special teams coordinator John Fassel was a man under siege. His units were piling up penalties as fast as Peyton Manning was throwing touchdown passes.
Through five games, Rams special teams had been flagged 17 times, with an 18th penalty declined. Amazingly, that was more penalties than the offense and defense combined. Tavon Austin was the king of lost causes, with six punt return penalties wiping out 188 yards worth of returns, including an 84-yard touchdown against Dallas.
A few days after a six-penalty abomination by special teams against Jacksonville, a game in which Austin was so frustrated he left the locker room without even removing his eye black, the normally low-key Fassel was agitated.
“I’d love to tell you exactly how I really feel,” Fassel said. “I just don’t want to get in trouble because a couple times we’ve had as good of blocks as I’ve ever coached in my career that have been called (penalties).”
Then he added with a tone of defiance: “Some people might not want to hear this, but we’re not going to change the way we play. Because the way those guys have been playing, (Daren) Bates, (Ray Ray) Armstrong, and (Chase) Reynolds, and (Stedman) Bailey, and (Brandon) McGee. ... the effort and really the execution, I couldn’t ask for more.”
The approach may not have changed, but the results sure have. Six games have come and gone since Jacksonville, and the special teams penalties have nose-dived. Now you see them, now you don’t. It was like some magic act.
Games 1-5: Seventeen penalties for 145 yards, costing the Rams 306 yards of field position.
Games 6-11: Four penalties for 35 yards, costing the team 36 yards of field position.
(Fifteen of those most recent penalty yards came when Isaiah Pead was whistled for jaw jacking — aka taunting — on the game-opening kickoff in Indianapolis. On a touchback, no less.)
So where have all the penalties gone?
“I’m so glad you asked,” Fassel said. “What did we change? Honestly, nothing.
“We’re doing the same drills. We show different clips of a penalty, and what’s not a penalty. Of us and different teams, because it happens for every team on special teams. We haven’t changed anything. We’ve just been working really hard at getting better at the things we’ve been talking about and they’ve been doing it.”
If that’s the case, the message really must be sinking in, because the improvement has been startling. The Rams have gone from averaging 3.4 special teams penalties through the first five games, to averaging 0.67 penalties a game over the next six contests.
“We’ve been emphasizing them,” coach Jeff Fisher said. “We’ve emphasized them on the practice field. Again, if you go back to the special teams’ penalties, 50 percent of them in our opinion should not have been called.”
As for the current stretch of nearly penalty-free special teams play?
“We’re just staying clean,” Fisher said. “We’re not getting close to any blocks in the back.”
No one is happier about this development than Austin, because 12 of those 17 penalties in Games 1-5 were assessed on punt returns. None of the four penalties in Games 6-11 has been called on punt returns.
With all those punt returns wiped out by penalties early in the season, Austin was averaging a meager 3.4 yards a return (57 yards on 17 returns) through five games. Since then? Fourteen returns for 211 yards, for a 15.1-yard average.
There was a telling moment illustrating the improvement two weeks ago against Indianapolis. Austin was closing in on the end zone en route to his 98-yard punt return, with punter Pat McAfee one of the last Colts in pursuit. Rams rookie linebacker Alec Ogletree was right behind McAfee, had his hands up ready to block.
It looked like an illegal block in the back just waiting to happen. But a funny thing happened on the way to the end zone. Ogletree put his hands down to his side, making no contact as he ran past McAfee. No contact, no penalty, seven points.
“Yeah, it was great ... you could see him pull his hands off,” Fassel said. “With the issues we had earlier in the season, whether they were penalties or not, it was unfortunately a great learning experience for a lot of new guys.”
The Rams have a ton of rookie and first-year players on the roster, more so than most teams. And those rookie and first-year players were responsible for 11 of those 17 special teams penalties in the first five games.
(The first-year player designation goes to someone such as Reynolds, who was on the Rams’ practice squad in 2011 and ’12 but didn’t play in a regular-season game until this year.)
Only two of the four special teams penalties in Games 6-11 were committed by a rookie or first-year player. So it appears many of the youngsters are growing up, and the training wheels are starting to come off.
In early October, Rams special teams coordinator John Fassel was a man under siege. His units were piling up penalties as fast as Peyton Manning was throwing touchdown passes.
Through five games, Rams special teams had been flagged 17 times, with an 18th penalty declined. Amazingly, that was more penalties than the offense and defense combined. Tavon Austin was the king of lost causes, with six punt return penalties wiping out 188 yards worth of returns, including an 84-yard touchdown against Dallas.
A few days after a six-penalty abomination by special teams against Jacksonville, a game in which Austin was so frustrated he left the locker room without even removing his eye black, the normally low-key Fassel was agitated.
“I’d love to tell you exactly how I really feel,” Fassel said. “I just don’t want to get in trouble because a couple times we’ve had as good of blocks as I’ve ever coached in my career that have been called (penalties).”
Then he added with a tone of defiance: “Some people might not want to hear this, but we’re not going to change the way we play. Because the way those guys have been playing, (Daren) Bates, (Ray Ray) Armstrong, and (Chase) Reynolds, and (Stedman) Bailey, and (Brandon) McGee. ... the effort and really the execution, I couldn’t ask for more.”
The approach may not have changed, but the results sure have. Six games have come and gone since Jacksonville, and the special teams penalties have nose-dived. Now you see them, now you don’t. It was like some magic act.
Games 1-5: Seventeen penalties for 145 yards, costing the Rams 306 yards of field position.
Games 6-11: Four penalties for 35 yards, costing the team 36 yards of field position.
(Fifteen of those most recent penalty yards came when Isaiah Pead was whistled for jaw jacking — aka taunting — on the game-opening kickoff in Indianapolis. On a touchback, no less.)
So where have all the penalties gone?
“I’m so glad you asked,” Fassel said. “What did we change? Honestly, nothing.
“We’re doing the same drills. We show different clips of a penalty, and what’s not a penalty. Of us and different teams, because it happens for every team on special teams. We haven’t changed anything. We’ve just been working really hard at getting better at the things we’ve been talking about and they’ve been doing it.”
If that’s the case, the message really must be sinking in, because the improvement has been startling. The Rams have gone from averaging 3.4 special teams penalties through the first five games, to averaging 0.67 penalties a game over the next six contests.
“We’ve been emphasizing them,” coach Jeff Fisher said. “We’ve emphasized them on the practice field. Again, if you go back to the special teams’ penalties, 50 percent of them in our opinion should not have been called.”
As for the current stretch of nearly penalty-free special teams play?
“We’re just staying clean,” Fisher said. “We’re not getting close to any blocks in the back.”
No one is happier about this development than Austin, because 12 of those 17 penalties in Games 1-5 were assessed on punt returns. None of the four penalties in Games 6-11 has been called on punt returns.
With all those punt returns wiped out by penalties early in the season, Austin was averaging a meager 3.4 yards a return (57 yards on 17 returns) through five games. Since then? Fourteen returns for 211 yards, for a 15.1-yard average.
There was a telling moment illustrating the improvement two weeks ago against Indianapolis. Austin was closing in on the end zone en route to his 98-yard punt return, with punter Pat McAfee one of the last Colts in pursuit. Rams rookie linebacker Alec Ogletree was right behind McAfee, had his hands up ready to block.
It looked like an illegal block in the back just waiting to happen. But a funny thing happened on the way to the end zone. Ogletree put his hands down to his side, making no contact as he ran past McAfee. No contact, no penalty, seven points.
“Yeah, it was great ... you could see him pull his hands off,” Fassel said. “With the issues we had earlier in the season, whether they were penalties or not, it was unfortunately a great learning experience for a lot of new guys.”
The Rams have a ton of rookie and first-year players on the roster, more so than most teams. And those rookie and first-year players were responsible for 11 of those 17 special teams penalties in the first five games.
(The first-year player designation goes to someone such as Reynolds, who was on the Rams’ practice squad in 2011 and ’12 but didn’t play in a regular-season game until this year.)
Only two of the four special teams penalties in Games 6-11 were committed by a rookie or first-year player. So it appears many of the youngsters are growing up, and the training wheels are starting to come off.
