There were several reasons why the New England Patriots were unable to hold onto the 21-0 advantage they had built over the Buffalo Bills last Sunday. The catalyst for the eventual collapse and 35-31 loss, however, might have been inadequate special teams performance.
Kickoff coverage in particular was an issue, with Buffalo returner Ray Davis averaging 41 yards on his four runbacks. This allowed the Bills to repeatedly play from positive field position and they took advantage: their first two touchdown
drives both started in New England territory.
Now going up against a Baltimore Ravens team no less capable of exploiting any miscues, Patriots special teams coordinator knows he needs to find a fix quickly.
“It’s very competitive every week. It doesn’t matter who you’re playing, everyone can beat you. And that’s why I love coaching at this level,” Springer explained.
“It was one thing to see it — we got burned by it and now it’s going back to the drawing board this week and figuring out how we can be better and help the team out. Because at the end of the day, we don’t get a lot of plays out there. When we do, we got to make sure we do a great job. We don’t, it always falls on the coach and you just got to figure out what to do going forward from there.”
The Patriots entered Week 15 giving up just under 24 yards per kickoff return, a top-5 mark in the NFL. However, the Bills — who averaged 27.4 yards per runback before their trip to Gillette Stadium — still managed to identify a weakness and were able to get the better of New England on multiple occasions.
Heading into Week 16, the challenge will be only slightly easier from a statistical perspective. Baltimore is currently ranked 15th in the league with a 26.0-yard average.
So, could the Patriots opt for an out-of-the-box approach and prefer touchbacks over returns? Springer is not categorically ruling out changing things up, but he still prefers making opponents run kicks back.
“It always depends on the situation of the game and how the flow of the game is going, but at the end of the day, if the average drive starts at the 30-yard line, the 35 is not where you want it to be off of a touchback. It’s five yards fewer,” he said.
“If you have the opportunity to cover, you want to cover and you want to continue to do that. And again, the situation might call differently or depending on the game, the weather, things like that will always dictate certain situations, but it’s always something to think about.”
