[NU Sports] Kicking game

[bwdolphin146 at yahoo.com]

There's no good time for any team to miss an extra point, but I would argue that extra points are especially critical for a team such as NU that plays so many close games. If the average margin of victory for a team is 30, a PAT miss or 2 is no big deal. For NU, involved in almost nothing but nailbiters, missed PATs are killers. You could argue Demos' two misses cost NU two wins.

Field goals: to a certain extent the above argument applies here too.  While Demos is a generally acceptable kicker, and long FGs are not givens in college, it is possible to recruit kickers who can convert such kicks at impressive rates. 

I am not picking on Demos -- I can only imagine how badly he felt Friday; my heart went out to him,  and he was solid all season -- but I do agree with Chuck that he was overworked. 

Perhaps I should advocate for better special teams coaching not necessarily more of it; that is an excellent point. 

Brad Wilson


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