In this space, we look at the snap-to-hold operation on field goals and extra points. We’ve got 6 we’re looking at this week. There were only 5 attempted kicks, but the initial field goal attempt went through the entire operation before getting waved off (the delay of game flag was thrown just after the snap and everyone on the field plays it out), so I decided to include it as Kick 0.
I decided to bring in an assistant (my 8 year old son) to help me with the charting & stick figure this week.
Kick 0: Field Goal 21 yards Made (No Play)
Snap
is a tick high, but not overly so. Charted this one as to the body. Rotation is good, allowing Whelan to catch the ball by the laces and get the ball down with a nice hold-and-spin. Ball is leaning slightly forward and away from Smack, which is exactly what you want in perfect conditions.
Smack doesn’t tend to have a lot of movement on his kicks: they go in a straight line more often than not. This one starts off hugging the upright and goes through hugging the upright.
Kick 1: Field Goal 26 yards Miss
This was Orzech’s worst snap of the day. It’s high and at Whelan’s head. Whelan has to rise up to catch the ball, but he’s able to catch it by the laces and get it down. The whole operation took ~1.34 seconds, which is right in the range of what you want (typically looking between 1.3-1.4 seconds). Laces are out, aligned to the middle of the uprights. Good hold from Whelan.
Ball is down at the same spot as the previous kick (right on the inside edge of the hash), so it’s not a different aiming point for Smack. Good snap. Good hold.
I’m not an expert in kicking mechanics so I don’t really know what happens from here, but it looks like this is on Smack. The ball starts straight, but ends up drifting outside while in the air. It looks like he gets the same spot of the ball, but I would guess he strikes more of the inside part of the ball on this kick, which causes that outside draw.
Kick 2: Extra Point Made
Good snap (up and to the body), good hold, good kick.
Kick 3: Extra Point Made
Great snap (over the place where the ball is placed on the hold), good hold, good kick. Worth noting the outside draw on this kick as well. It starts directly to the middle of the uprights so that draw to the outside is fine, but if the kick starts more at the outside upright it would be a problem. Again, not an issue on this kick given the starting point of the kick but just something to keep in mind, given the missed kick earlier.
Kick 4: Field Goal 43 yards Made
A tick low, but over the point of the hold. Good snap, good hold, good kick.
A couple things on the protection here. With the ball on the left hash, the Lions are loading up over the right side of the line. Since the ball has to travel back to the right to get to the uprights, it makes sense to overload that side to try to get a push for a block.
Watch Travis Glover [79] on this play. He starts low, but the man across from him is lower and the initial contact gets Glover raised up and off-balance. As more rushers push, Glover is completely raised up; one foot completely up in the air, entire body getting shoved back. This one very easily could have been blocked.
Kick 5: Field Goal 35 yards Miss (Blocked) – BODY
Good snap from Orzech. Up and to the body, with the rotation allowing Whelan to catch it on the laces and get down a nice snap. Good hold, place and spin. The entire snap-to-kick operation takes ~1.29 seconds. No issues there.
The issue is what we looked at in the last play. Once again we’re on the left hash, so the Lions are loaded up on the right. Glover starts out slightly better than last time, but is still easily out-leveraged and shoved back. This time the hand gets through and gets a hand on the ball as it crosses the line.
It could just be me, but this doesn’t look like an issue with operation or with kick height. Snap, hold & timing were all fine. More than anything, the issue seems to be with Glover getting outleveraged.
Albums listened to: beabadoobee – Pylon
