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By Randolph Charlotin
It happened on national television. It may not had been the first time, but it happened when all football fans could see it.
During the Sunday Night Football game, Indianapolis was penalized during a kickoff return for forming a blocking wedge. Before the season, the NFL made the blocking wedge illegal. The penalty cost the Colts half the distance in field position.
From the moment the NFL banned the wedge, there was debate over how the new rule would affect kickoff returns. Some experts believed it would help the return team.
Pete Cronan disagreed. Cronan, a former NFL linebacker with nine years of experience, played special teams with the Seattle Seahawks and Washington Redskins. He believed there would be less big returns.
The season is only five weeks old, but is there a clear difference between this year and last?
Through five weeks, there have been three kickoff returns for touchdowns: Minnesota’s Percy Harvin in Week 3, and two in Week 4 with Chicago’s Johnny Knox and Houston’s Jacoby Jones taking it to the house.
While in 2008, Dallas’ Felix Jones and San Diego’s Darren Sproles went the distance in Week 2. Edge: 2009.
By average, ’09 is slightly ahead. The Bears have the best return game with a 31.3 average. Tennessee was the top regular season return team in ’08 with an average of 25.4 yards. But this is inconclusive as this is comparing five games against a full season.
The same can be said of the league average, though the difference is slight. After five games, 2009 averages 23 yards per return. 2008 managed 22.8.
A look at the top five returners might be more telling:
The 2009 has the edge, but this again repeats the problem of comparing five games against a 16-game regular season. This is thrown out as well.
Something starts to develop when comparing the first five games in each season. But instead of comparing averages, the measurement is big returns. Two standards were set: returns between 40-49 yards, and returns of 50 yards or more. Both were counted for the first five weeks of the season. Under these standards, 2008 leads 2009.
Last year, 20 returns gained between 40-49 yards after five weeks. That’s not a big deal considering there have been 18 returns of equal distance this year. But when the standard is raised to 50 yards or more, it becomes clear.
After five weeks, 2008 had 21 returns of 50 yards or more. 2009 lags well behind with 14 returns of 50 yards or more.
So even though the return average is higher in 2009, the number of big returns has gone down. These results aren’t conclusive, as the final tally at the end of the season will prove if the trend holds true. But if the these early returns keep this pace, then teams will continue to lose field position without the wedge.
Read more by Randolph Charlotin at his New England Patriots blog at. He can be reached at talktome@randolphc.com.
