Nothing Special About Kicking Game

From Arrowhead Stadium

If covering punts and kickoffs were the only measure of a special teams performance, then the Chiefs had one heckuva game on Sunday against the Chargers.

Facing one of the league’s most explosive returners in RB Darren Sproles, they didn’t give up a return longer than 18 yards. Sproles returned just one punt for 18 yards and he returned two kickoffs for an average of 17 yards. One of those two kickoff returns also went for 18 yards.

Yes, the Chiefs kicking game had Sproles bottled up.

But the rest of the special teams business was bad. After being the most consistent portion of the Chiefs game over the first six weeks, the bottom fell out of the kicking game.

The ugliest moment was a blocked punt by the Chargers that turned into a San Diego touchdown.

The game’s outcome was already decided at that point when RB Jacob Hester came flying in on the right side of the Chiefs punt protection team. Hester ran through a gap between LB Corey Mays and RB Jamaal Charles. He was Charles’ man to block and he never laid a hand on him.

Hester got to the ball the moment it left Colquitt’s foot.

“It was that double thump,” said Colquitt.

It’s the worst sound in the game of football, especially when the ball rolls backwards and into the end zone, where Hester fell on it without any interference from anybody wearing a red jersey.

“(LB) Jyles Tucker was in there before me and he said I had a chance to block it,” Hester said after the game. “He said just give them a move. We called it where I got to rush the punter and it was there like he said. It’s tough when you are running free and trying to block it, you always worry about missing it.

“I just tried to stay calm and recover it. I did not want to jump on it and have it go out of the back of the end zone. I just tried to stay calm and get on the ball.”

It was the first punt blocked against the Chiefs since December 23, 2007, when Detroit LB Casey Fitzsimmons got Colquitt’s punt. The last time a punt block went for a touchdown was in 2000, when Raiders WR Kenny Shedd did it on January 2 at Arrowhead Stadium.

“I didn’t see him coming at all,” said Colquitt. “My leg was coming through and that’s when I heard that double thump. I didn’t see him at all until the last second.”

Ryan Succop missed a big field goal near the end of the first half when his 43-yard attempt just went about a foot wide to the right.

“We thought he hit it good,” said Colquitt, his holder. “There was some wind down there and we thought it would start right and then come back in. But it never moved. It just stayed there.”

Again, the Chiefs got nothing from their return game. Charles had six returns, averaged 24.5 yards and had a long return of 45 yards. But he never came close to breaking one off. Bobby Wade had just one punt return for 17 yards, fair catching the other three kicked to him.

With the bye week coming, the guys on special teams now have plenty to work on with the extra time.

“We are going to have to look at the tape and see where we went wrong,” said Colquitt. “We had done really good up to this point and we’ve got to go back to the drawing board and figure out how to become a strong point for the team.”