04-21-2023, 03:51 PM
(This post was last modified: 04-24-2023, 08:54 AM by H0PPY75. Edited 8 times in total.)
AW's Next Level Punting - ISFL Week 2
We...are...back! A whole day has passed and the numbers have been crunched since this morning and it is time to display our Week 2 report for Next Level Punting. Had a lot of fun with week one and excited to bring another exciting week of punting and grow our overall total numbers a little bit. For those who did not see the first one, it can be found HERE and that has more details of what we are doing and trying to accomplish this season with our Next Level Punting initiatives and the ability for you, the user reading this, to get a gauge on what makes a good punter and see, hopefully, their impact on the field. I will say, there is a game this week where the punt game may have been the deciding factor and real reason a team won which was really cool to see and we will talk about that game specifically in a section on this article! So, this go around, we will talk less about the overall implementation and what we are doing and more based on the stats with a few blurbs such as last time, talk about the real punting effect on an actual ISFL game, and go into some numbers over the first two weeks combined, including analyzing our correction to the Inside 20 numbers and percentages!
Week 2:
The Consistency?
I titled the section with consistency but I think, if you saw last week's stats, you can certainly tell that for the most part, there is not a lot of consistency at least when it comes to net punt average.
Week 1 Top 5 in Gross Average:
1) Known Acquaintance - Berlin Fire Salamanders - 52.8 Y/P
2) Booter McGavin - San Jose Sabercats - 52.7 Y/P
3) Jeremy Crouse Jr. - Orange County Otters - 49.3 Y/P
4) Jayme Jayne Jay-Jamison - Arizona Outlaws - 47.7 Y/P
5) Charlie Brown - Austin Copperheads - 47.4 Y/P
Week 2 Top 5 in Gross Average:
1. Booter McGavin - San Jose Sabercats - 53.4 Y/P
2. Double Doink - Yellowknife Wraiths - 49.4 Y/P
3. Mike Makmur - Baltimore Hawks - 49.3 Y/P
4. David Doug - Chicago Butchers - 48.3 Y/P
5. Known Acquaintance - Berlin Fire Salamanders - 47.6 Y/P
Only 2 from last week are a top of this week's gross punting average leaderboards for the week. McGavin and Acquaintance stay on top of list so the top 2 at least for last week stay so they are looking to be the distance punters so far it appears or at least they are needing to be if their offense is stalling early on in drives. The other 3 in the top for last week were in the bottom 6 for punting average for the week at least when it comes to gross punt average in their respective games.
Week 1 Top 5 in Net Average:
1) Booter McGavin - San Jose Sabercats - 52.7 NY/P
2) Jeremy Crouse Jr. - Orange County Otters - 49.3 NY/P
3) Known Acquaintance - Berlin Fire Salamanders - 43.4 NY/P
4) Orlando Doom - Colorado Yeti - 43.0 NY/P
5) Jayme Jayne Jay-Jamison - Arizona Outlaws - 42.2 NY/P
Week 2 Top 5 in Net Average:
1) Orlando Doom - Colorado Yeti - 49.3 NY/P
2) David Doug - Chicago Butchers - 48.3 NY/P
3) Mike Makmur - Baltimore Hawks - 45.3 NY/P
4) Alfonso Dos Santos - New Orleans Second Line - 44.4 NY/P
5) Swantavius King - Sarasota Sailfish - 43.9 NY/P
We have some more change over and even more so this week when it comes to average net punting which makes sense since it can depend on a lot of things and one game samples are certainly always going to vary. The only one in the top 5 last week was Orlando Doom who goes from 4th to 1st over the course of the week. Interestingly, Doom had a bigger net average than a gross average due to his opponent, Sarasota, totaling negative seven yards in punt returns as a result of either punts driving the returner back or just overall excellent coverage, or some dumb decisions by the return man. Who is not pictured here is number one from last week Booter McGavin who went from first to last dropping from 52.7 net yards per punt in Week 1 to 26.8 net yards per punt in Week 2. Similar to the gross, players that did not make both lists fell to the bottom half of all punters in this category though Crouse was decent with 42.0 net yards per punt.
The Game That Proved Punting Matters
In Week 2, the New Orleans Second Line traveled to San Jose, California to take on the Sabercats and our unofficial reigning punter of the week, Booter McGavin. The game finished 26-23 in favor of the New Orleans Second Line with the winning touchdown coming from a punt return by The Stig of NOLA off a punt by McGavin. That is not all that mattered in terms of punting in the game however as I believe firmly that the punting matchup is the main reason that NOLA won the game and I would happily award NOLA punter Alfonso Dos Santos as the MVP of the game.
In the game, there were 14 total punts: 9 for Dos Santos and 5 for McGavin. Starting with McGavin, in his 5 punts, he totaled 267 yards (53.4 yards per punt) with his average punt coming from the 30.4 yard line. The box score shows 2 punts inside the 20 but really, he had zero which is extremely misleading unfortunately but reading this instead of the box score, you can see more of what happened. In addition to no official punts inside the 20, McGavin also had just an average net punt of 26.8 net yards per punt thanks to 2 touchbacks and he also gave up a punt return on a kick where he booted it (no pun intended) 67 yards only to have it returned 68 yards for a touchdown which ended up being the difference in the game. Yes, that means that he had to punt it from the 1-yard line in a close game and ended up out kicking his coverage to try and flip the field position and it ended up in a disaster...the reason...Dos Santos.
Alfonso Dos Santos had one of the best games you will see from a punter based on his ability to flip the field and pin the opposing offense back and doing it with a large volume as well which makes it more impressive. Dos Santos had 9 punts on the day for 423 yards (47 yards per punt) and had six, yes SIX, punts inside the 20 over the course of the game for an inside the 20 percentage of 66.7% over his 9 kicks. In addition, not only did he have those 6 punts inside the 20 but 5 of those were inside the 10 and 2 of them were inside the 5. The average starting field position for the Sabercats after his 9 punts was around the 15-yard line which made it incredibly difficult for San Jose to get in a rhythm. They out-gained New Orleans over the day but they had much further to go on so many of their drives which made it a difficult task. The biggest punt of the game came in the 4th quarter when Dos Santos booted it 58 yards and had his punt downed at the 1-yard line of the Sabercats. The Sabercats ended up going 3 and out and would have to punt. This set up McGavin having to try and flip the field and send it flying 67 yards and had the punt return happen due to the need to kick it deep and hope the coverage could get there but unfortunately they couldn't.
Now, the punt return was certainly not on McGavin, he did what he had to do but it was a direct result from Dos Santos and his ability to perfectly place the ball down to the one which set up the game winning punt return. McGavin had to boot it deep, there was a bit over 3-minutes left and New Orleans would have time to potentially drive and make the winning score. While San Jose's defense was playing well all game, it made sense to not give them a short field to work with, but it was just unfortunate in the end. San Jose starting on the 1, the 5, the 7, and the 9 twice was just too much to overcome in the long run and Dos Santos was a huge reason that the Second Line took home the win. MVP Dos Santos.
Week 2 Notable Punts
1) NOLA punter Alfonso Dos Santos 58 net yard punt downed at the one yard line.
2) OCO punter Jeremy Crouse Jr. had a 58 net yard punt downed at the one yard line with 2 minutes left in the 4Q.
3) SJS punter Booter McGavin had a 67 yard punt returned for 68 yards and a touchdown which ended up winning the game for NOLA.
Week 2 Notable Punts
1) NOLA punter Alfonso Dos Santos 58 net yard punt downed at the one yard line.
2) OCO punter Jeremy Crouse Jr. had a 58 net yard punt downed at the one yard line with 2 minutes left in the 4Q.
3) SJS punter Booter McGavin had a 67 yard punt returned for 68 yards and a touchdown which ended up winning the game for NOLA.
Week 2 Punter of the Week
Alfonso Dos Santos - NOLA - @toivo
We had a whole section dedicated to Dos Santos and him being a huge or even the reason NOLA won their game, easy choice.
Honorable mentions: CHI David Doug, COL Orlando Doom
Alfonso Dos Santos - NOLA - @toivo
We had a whole section dedicated to Dos Santos and him being a huge or even the reason NOLA won their game, easy choice.
Honorable mentions: CHI David Doug, COL Orlando Doom
Season Stats
Inside the 20 Dilemma!
Only thing I really wanted to bring up seasonally other than posting the stats was the differences in inside the 20 from the index and what I have manually gotten which is using the correct way to determine a punt inside the 20. As mentioned last time, the game incorrectly determines punts inside the 20 and just says if the kick went inside the 20, even if returned past the 20, it was being counted. Those should not count.
Inside the 20 (Difference from Index):
1) Alfonso Dos Santos - NOLA - 9 (-1)
2) Swantavius King - SAR - 5 (-2)
3) Orlando Doom - COL - 5 (0)
4) Jayme Jayne Jay-Jaymison - AZ - 5 (-1)
5) Ray Baker - HON - 4 (0)
6) Patrick Cunningham - CTC - 4 (0)
7) Known Acquaintance - BER - 4 (-1)
8) Jeremy Crouse Jr. - OCO - 4 (0)
9) Ian Cole III - NYS - 4 (-1)
10) David Doug - CHI - 4 (0)
11) Charlie Brown - AUS - 4 (0)
12) Mike Makmur - BAL - 3 (-1)
13) Booter McGavin - SJS - 2 (-2)
14) Double Doink - YKW - 1 (0)
Over the course of 2 weeks, you can see that there is a decent amount of disparity of inside the 20 kicks. While no one has more than 2 more than they should have in the index, over the course of a season it can certainly add up and I think voters would definitely look or should look differently at a punter who has 30 punts inside the 20 in the index but actually only had about 15, it can change quite a bit. Just in 2 weeks, we have 9 total punts that were counted as punts inside the 20 that were not really supposed to be counted.
Real Inside 20 Percentage: 58/154 (37.7%)
Index Inside 20 Percentage: 67/154 (43.5%)
About 6 percentage points in difference could be pretty significant at least if we considered it on an individual level so it will be interesting to see how it all rounds out.
Inside the 20 Dilemma!
Only thing I really wanted to bring up seasonally other than posting the stats was the differences in inside the 20 from the index and what I have manually gotten which is using the correct way to determine a punt inside the 20. As mentioned last time, the game incorrectly determines punts inside the 20 and just says if the kick went inside the 20, even if returned past the 20, it was being counted. Those should not count.
Inside the 20 (Difference from Index):
1) Alfonso Dos Santos - NOLA - 9 (-1)
2) Swantavius King - SAR - 5 (-2)
3) Orlando Doom - COL - 5 (0)
4) Jayme Jayne Jay-Jaymison - AZ - 5 (-1)
5) Ray Baker - HON - 4 (0)
6) Patrick Cunningham - CTC - 4 (0)
7) Known Acquaintance - BER - 4 (-1)
8) Jeremy Crouse Jr. - OCO - 4 (0)
9) Ian Cole III - NYS - 4 (-1)
10) David Doug - CHI - 4 (0)
11) Charlie Brown - AUS - 4 (0)
12) Mike Makmur - BAL - 3 (-1)
13) Booter McGavin - SJS - 2 (-2)
14) Double Doink - YKW - 1 (0)
Over the course of 2 weeks, you can see that there is a decent amount of disparity of inside the 20 kicks. While no one has more than 2 more than they should have in the index, over the course of a season it can certainly add up and I think voters would definitely look or should look differently at a punter who has 30 punts inside the 20 in the index but actually only had about 15, it can change quite a bit. Just in 2 weeks, we have 9 total punts that were counted as punts inside the 20 that were not really supposed to be counted.
Real Inside 20 Percentage: 58/154 (37.7%)
Index Inside 20 Percentage: 67/154 (43.5%)
About 6 percentage points in difference could be pretty significant at least if we considered it on an individual level so it will be interesting to see how it all rounds out.
Former players:
QB Joliet Christ Jr. (HON/BER) (1x Ultimus Champ)
WR Deondre Thomas-Fox (SJS) (2x Ultimus Champ)
QB Joliet L. Christ (SJS) (Hall of Fame) (1x Ultimus Champ)