Sports – FiveThirtyEight — Punts RSS



The Nation’s Best Punter Is Changing The Game

Matt Araiza’s favorite punt of the season was an 81-yard boomer. It wasn’t just the distance that the San Diego State junior enjoyed, but what it did to the punt returner. “It was a moonshot,” Araiza said. “You could see on the film he basically looked like he had never seen anything like that before. […]

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Getting Pinned Down At The 1-Yard Line Isn’t As Bad As You Think

Putting rookie quarterbacks in challenging situations is part of what the NFL preseason is all about. There are no real consequences for failure, and the level of competition is high enough such that the experience is both revealing and an opportunity for growth. Chicago Bears QB Justin Fields learned that in his first preseason game […]

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Is College Football Abandoning The Punt Return?

The first few games of this college football season saw a return to chaos for one specific play: the punt return. Louisiana used a punt-return touchdown (after an earlier touchdown on a kickoff return) to fuel one of the biggest wins in Cajun program history and the season’s first upset of a ranked opponent. Texas […]

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