Special Teams Have Struggled Lately to Live up to Being "Special"

The Eagles had bad field position throughout Sunday's loss to the Giants, and the ST units were a part of the reason why, so Dave Fipp did some explaining on Tuesday

There was a time not long ago when the Eagles’ special teams were indeed special, with Chris Maragos and Bryan Braman wreaking havoc and Darren Sproles a threat to take a punt to the house any time a team dared him.

These days, the special team units have yet to live up to that “special” billing.

It’s been a season-long issue that has mostly been an issue on the perimeter, nagging a bit here with some of kicker Jake Elliott’s missed field goals, but on a team that is as offensively challenged as the Eagles right now, the harsh spotlight shined turned on the special team units in Sunday’s 27-17 loss to the New York Giants.

The Eagles had horrible field position throughout the loss. None of their 10 drives during their 27-17 loss to the New York Giants began beyond the 25-yard line and four of them started at the 11-yard-line or worse.

“We didn’t do a good enough job getting our offense field position in our phase,” said special teams coordinator Dave Fipp, who has been running the ST show for Philadelphia since Chip Kelly brought him aboard in 2013.

“Obviously, they had the 71-yard punt where the ball went over our head…The ball going over our heads, you just can’t do that. You can’t give good football teams or any team in this league that much field position, so certainly we have to catch the football. It starts with that.”

So, that’s where we will start.

Jalen Reagor was the punt returner on a punt that was boomed by Riley Dixon. Reagor began retreating but stopped at the 20 and peeled off. The ball hit at the 15 and bounded to the 6.

“Obviously, the guy hit a bomb, went over his head,” said Fipp, on Tuesday. “…Anytime you kick it that far you have a little more time to get back there and catch the thing. You don’t have gunners in your face because it’s a further punt. He did it in college.

“I think he is a developing player. By no means am I saying he shouldn’t be able to handle that. I know he knows he can do it. We know he can do it. I believe in him. I think he’s going to be a really good player back there.”

Later, Greg Ward was in position to catch the ball at the 12 but let hit land about a yard behind him at the 11 and the ball rolled to the 5.

“Greg’s was a little bit different than Jalen’s,” said Fipp. “…I think (Ward’s) got caught up in a gust of wind and he didn’t feel comfortable catching the ball, so he didn’t. Obviously, we’d rather have him catch that ball. I’d rather have him also let it go than muff a catch if he doesn’t feel comfortable with it. That being said, we get paid to catch the football back there.”

Then there were the two penalties that cost the Eagles field position after decent kickoff returns by Boston Scott.

The first was a hold on Corey Clement after the Giants had taken a 14-3 lead. Scott returned the ball to the 34, but the penalty pushed the ball back to the 9.

Then to start the second half, Scott advanced to the 28 but a block in the back against Shaun Bradley moved the Eagles back to the 16.

“Unfortunately, it seems that every time we have a decent return, we also have a penalty to go along with it,” said Fipp. “I thought there was a lot of good blocking on both those kickoff returns, and we had about nine guys doing a great job then, unfortunately, we had a couple blocks that were decisions that we just can’t do. I have to do a better job putting those guys in better situations in practice. It definitely hurts us.”

Jabril Peppers also hurt the Eagles in the punt return game, with four returns for 47 yards.

“I would say it was a combination of both punt and coverage,” said Fipp about Peppers’ returns. “We just didn’t execute well enough as a group.”

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