Specialists position Chargers for success

Monday, Dec 11, 2006
By Tom Shanahan, Chargers.com

It’s one of the most unusual statistics you’ll see in football: Chargers punter Mike Scifres had a net punting average that was greater than his overall average.

Scifres averaged 44.3 yards on three punts, but only one punt was returned and that was for a three-yard loss. Scifres thus had a net average of 45.3 for the day in the Chargers’ 48-20 win Sunday over the Denver Broncos at Qualcomm Stadium.

“I can’t recall anytime I’ve ever seen that,” Chargers head coach Schottenheimer said. “We’ll call somebody in New York, and they’ll know. It’s obviously unusual, and I’m sure it’s happened before, but not to my recollection.”

It’s a combination of Scifres’ hang time and the coverage unit getting down field that led to the unusual stat. Scifres’ first punt in the first quarter of 39 yards was downed by Kassim Osgood at the Denver 6-yard line and his second punt of 46 yards was caught for a fair catch at Denver’s 29-yard line.

But on Scifres’ third and final punt, Darrent Williams tried for a return. He fielded the ball at Denver’s 10-yard but was quickly forced to retreat to sidestep strong coverage. He avoided the first two tacklers but linebacker Tim Dobbins tackled him at the 7-yard line. Thus, Denver’s punt return team was one for -3 yards on the day.

It’s the kind of hidden yardage in a football game that Schottenheimer notices, although Chargers fans focused on three touchdown runs by running back LaDainian Tomlinson, the two touchdown catches by tight end Antonio Gates and the 55-yard pass from Philip Rivers to Vincent Jackson to set up a field goal by Nate Kaeding for a 31-20 lead.

“I was pleased with our play in the kicking game, with our punter and place kicker,” Schottenheimer said. “They’re pretty good at what they do, and it makes for a long field (for the opponent).”

Scifres and Kaeding both have made strong cases for earning their first Pro Bowl berths.

Scifres has placed 26 of his 50 punts inside the 20-yard line to rank second in the league, but the leader, Tennessee’s Craig Hentrich, has 30 more attempts.

Kaeding has hit 20 of 23 field goals, including two more in the win over Denver. He’s hit 8-of-9 from 30-to-39 yards, 4-of-6 from 40-to-49 and is 1-of-1 from 50 yards and longer.

Field position and ball security are two elements that are the true identity of Martyball.  Against the Broncos, field position led to the Chargers jumping out to a 28-3 halftime lead.

The Chargers’ first touchdown came as the result of a short field after the Broncos started at their 6-yard line and punted three plays later. The Bolts began their possession at the Denver 47 and scored four plays later for a 7-0 lead.

Denver started its next possession at its 18-yard line following a tackle by Drayton Florence on a kickoff. The Broncos punted three plays later, and the Chargers had the ball at their 46-yard line. The Bolts scored six plays later for a 14-0 lead.

The trend continued throughout the game as the Broncos started their drives from an average of their 23-yard line and the Chargers started from an average of their 43-yard line.

“It’s a matter of field position,” Schottenheimer said. “Our first scoring drive was set up by the ball being inside their 20-yard and (Denver) went three and out to us. They had a short punt and we had a short field and scored. Then we did it another time later in the game. It’s a fundamental aspect of the game that never changes -- ball security and field position. That served us well.”

It’s nothing new for Schottenheimer to stress field position and ball security, but the Chargers are capitalizing on the phases of the game en route to an 11-2 record and clinching the AFC West title with three weeks to play.

In addition to Kaeding and Scifres ranking at the top of the league, the Chargers are a plus-11 in the turnover ratio. Another area contributing to field position is sacks. The Chargers have yielded only 23 sacks while leading the league by recording 48 sacks.

Schotteneheimer said that later in the season it’s easy for teams to spend more time game-planning than on fundamentals, which he considers a mistake. It‘s nothing new for a Schottenheimer team to emphasize fundamentals, but this year’s Chargers have benefited from focusing on fundamentals more than most clubs.

“We have a 15-minute period that is reduced to 10 minutes this time of year where we work on nothing but fundamentals,” Schottenheimer said. “We think it’s really important to spend a specific amount of time not on what the other guys are doing and on what we’re doing.”

The net gain is an AFC West title for the second time in the last three years.