EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — The ‘Peanut Punch’, with would be tacklers punching at the ball with a closed fist in an effort to jar the ball loose from ballcarriers, has become the rage in the NFL.
“The league is more of a punch-out league than it’s ever been before,” head coach John Harbaugh said on Wednesday.
Cam Skattebo’s overtime fumble Sunday against the Washington Commanders, which cost the Giants an opportunity to win that game, came on a punch-out by Washington defensive tackle Daron Payne.
“Everyone
here is seeing what this NFL has become right now with that peanut punch,” offensive coordinator Matt Nagy said on Thursday. “I mean, it’s across the board. You see it the next night in that Rams-Buffalo Bills game. Guy [Nate Landman of the Rams] had two of them.
“So it’s a different style of game. They’re being taught to punch the ball out.”
With defenders punching at the ball like never before, what are ballcarriers to do? How do they protect the ball?
“You emphasize it. You practice it, which we do every week,” Nagy said. “Coach Harbs is just – he’s so good with that. We make sure every practice that we are – we have a bunch of different drills that we work. We work it and you have to speak it into existence.
“So that’s the part sometimes that can get frustrating is you end up getting to a point where you practice it, you emphasize it, but yet it still happens. So you just can’t – you can’t just stop doing that. You have to make sure you keep emphasizing it. We’ll show clips.”
Nagy did address the Skattebo fumble.
“This weekend more than ever at the end of the game situationally is a part of it,” Nagy said. “So you just have to be careful of – there’s that fine line of making sure that after the game everyone – Skat knows everyone’s upset at what happened. He gets that.
“So there’s that fine line of knowing, listen, the next day on Monday or Tuesday when you show it, explain it. But you don’t beat it down … he’s just got to do it. It’s simple. Do it. Just cover the ball, two hands, especially in that moment, and then we just got to emphasize it as coaches.”
Kickoff and punt returners are also dealing with tacklers trying to punch the ball out.
“It’s something we talk about. We talk a lot about it, right?,” said special teams coordinator Chris Horton. “And it is happening. It is happening a lot. You see a lot of these plays. But it’s just a reminder that defenses are attacking the football.
“So when we’re carrying the ball, we spend a lot of time about being intentional about protecting the football. Where should the ball be?”
Tyrone Tracy had a ball punched out Sunday vs. Washington as he was going out of bounds on a kickoff return.
“We talked about body, ball, boundary,” Horton said. “Well, if I’m running to the left, the ball needs to be on the left side. That way that guy can’t punch that ball. If he does punch it, hey, we’re on the sidelines probably going out of bounds. But through contact, we got to make sure that we are intentional about protecting the football.”
