FanPost

Turning Weakness into Strength...Special Teams

On Sunday, the Giants seemed to have officially turned the corner in their special teams unit.

Dodge punted once...for a 50 yard net. Against Dallas, he had a 55 yard net avg. Now, even though his stats were in the middle of the pack prior to this, there were awful lapses in coverages as the Giants could not field and contain the returner effectively. These new stats say a lot about how far he and the punt coverage unit has done. It seems like things are falling into place.

Tynes, after not having touchbacks for the first few weeks of the season, has been kicking the seams off the ball. Coughlin himself said Tynes is "smooth as silk" in his FGs and kickoffs lately. There are some obvious changes in his mechanics and, at this point, he has become one of the better kickers in the league. Yesterday, we saw Tynes, outside of one return, take one of the best kick returners in the league out of the game.

Both of these players are young in terms of kickers/punters, and can remain solid for a long time going forward. While we have certainly ragged on Tom Quinn, deservedly so, for some time, we can be certain that this unit is coming into its own and may very well become a strength as the season progresses. Before we call Quinn out, as well, we need to understand a lot happens in every defensive return; there are a whole lot of things going on at once, and it might be difficult to point the finger at one guy - even if he is the coach.

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