Deep down, in places Eagles fans don’t talk about at parties, there’s a realization that special teams could play a big part in determining this team’s fate.
It’s not the most comforting of thoughts, particularly after a game in Minnesota that turned the term “squib” into a curse word in Philadelphia. It’s far more desirable to tie one’s fortunes to the likes of LeSean McCoy or DeSean Jackson or DeMeco Ryans, but that’s not always the way it works out. Sometimes it comes down to the Alex Henery‘s of the world.
The city doesn’t seem to have a ton of faith in the former fourth-round pick at the moment. The most accurate kicker in NCAA history ranks 23rd in the NFL in field goal percentage this year, converting 80.8 percent of his tries. Jimmy Kempski points out that Henery has the fewest field goal attempts from 50-plus yards (5) since he joined the league in 2011. He has missed four of 10 attempts of 40-plus yards this year. This all ties into the general concern about his leg strength.
There is the issue of getting the ball out of the end zone on kickoffs. The Eagles rank 23rd in touchback percentage (43 percent). Chip Kelly said after testing Henery’s leg pregame against the Vikings, the team decided to avoid kicking to Cordarrelle Patterson. According to Henery, the game plan remained the same all week. It would have taken him routinely booming the ball out of the back of the end zone to change an approach they had been planning for days.
Henery estimated that he gets 4-5 kickoffs per game. How many would he have been able to get out of the end zone against the Vikings?
“I don’t know. You can only wonder, I guess you could say,” said Henery. “If you got three out [of bounds] but the one you didn’t get out he takes to the house…”
The Nebraska product has already established a career-high in touchbacks (33) this season, and is on pace to set a new best in touchback percentage as well. So really, he’s getting stronger in that area. Still, the Eagles remain in the bottom of the league in that category.
“It’s not one of the easier places to kick here, so if I’m middle of the pack sometimes that’s good because some teams are playing in warm weather at end of the year, and that affects those numbers,” said Henery. “You kind of have to look at it that way. You’re not going to be able to hit a touchback here like you’d be able to in Arizona or something like that.”
Bottom line, he can’t kick it out of end zone consistently. That’s why Kelly and special teams coach Dave Fipp opted not to risk kicking to Patterson. Now, they face a similar dilemma with Bears standout return man Devin Hester. And Dallas’ Dwayne Harris after that.
Special teams overall has been up and down. Punter Donnie Jones has been exceptional. He has 30 punts on the year that have pinned opponents inside their own 20, good for third in the league. Meanwhile, the Eagles are 20th in kick return yards and 30th in punt return yards.
Kelly is a special-teams friendly head coach. He requires that back-ups are able to contribute on specials, and routinely sits in on Fipps’ meetings. For all the attention paid to this phase of the game, they need to start seeing better results.
“I know along the way there’s been some good, some bad,” said Fipp. “There’s been some things we’ve done a great job of at times, there’s some things we’ve done a bad job at times. We knew when we started this thing we had a long way to go, and still do.”Read More
