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Originally Posted by BeaverEater
It's a huge factor for me.
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This goes back to the rules changes which have continually favored the passing game. Tightening up pass interference and other rules changes have reduced the importance of other aspects of football, all in favor of passing.
Not that it is impossible to win otherwise (see, unfortunately, Denver last year), but it's increasingly hard to be competitive without an above-average or great QB.
Belichick was talking about an aspect of htis earlier this week. He said when he came into the NFL (aroudn 1975) there were 6 competitive plays in special teams. As of last year, there were only two. He therefore welcomed the rules change bringing kickoff returns to the 25, as it had returned kick and kick coverage into a competitive play.
Take it away Bill:
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Originally Posted by Bill Belichick
“When I came into the league on special teams you had six phases,” Belichick said in his Monday press conference. “Every phase was very competitive, so field goal protection, field goal rush, kickoff, kickoff return, punt, punt return - now that's really down to just two phases; punt and punt return.
“Field goals - it's very hard to block a field goal because of the rules. You can't hit the center, you can't jump, you can't overload, you can't do much of anything. You just have to make a great play to somehow split the coverage or have a bad kick or both to really affect that play. It's not impossible but it's hard, so field goal protection isn't what it used to be and the field goal rush has really been taken out of the game.
“Then when you start touch-backing the kickoffs you take the coverage players out of the game because you and I could cover a lot of the kickoffs when they're nine, 10, 11 yards deep in the end zone. You don't need anybody to cover them and the same thing with the return game. They don't block because there's no return, so it's become a punt and punt return game and that's where a lot of the emphasis now has to go in the kicking game because that's where most of the plays are.”
“Getting the ball out to the 25-yard line is obviously harder than getting it out to the 20,” Belichick said, “and those touchbacks that put it on the 20, I mean I know it's only five yards- and five yards is five yards- but it just seems like it was a lot easier for teams to just touchback and put the ball on the 20, whereas now there's just a little more incentive to make them return it to the 25 as opposed to just handing them the ball on the 25-yard line.”
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