Bosher is the Punter of the Week - Pat Y

samedi · **Posted:** Tue Oct 16, 2012 8:45 pm

Quote:

As I watched Atlanta’s Matt Bosher on Sunday, I couldn’t help but think how patience paid off for the Falcons.

Early last season, a lot of fans were screaming for the Falcons to dump their rookie punter. His punts were short and so were his kickoffs. But the Falcons had a draft pick invested in him and were stuck with him. It started to pay off as last season went on, but Bosher is really blossoming this season.

Each week since the start of last season, ESPN’s Mark Simon has picked a Punter of the Week. His choice for this week is Bosher and you can’t argue with that.

Bosher averaged 52.8 yards per punt both gross and net in Sunday’s victory against Oakland. Bosher’s four punts went 55, 45, 57 and 54 yards.

The 52.8-yard net average was the best for any NFL punter this past week and the best for any punter this season (minimum four punts). It is tied for third-best by any punter in the last five seasons.

Complete net punting data dates back to 1991. Bosher’s 52.8 net average is the best for any Atlanta punter in that span.

I still do not miss Koenen.

Pudge · **Posted:** Tue Oct 16, 2012 9:54 pm

Yes, Bosher is one of those players in the Brent Grimes category, that was able to really turn his career around.

DaveWaz · **Posted:** Wed Oct 17, 2012 12:20 am

He's been solid, slightly above average in my opinion. I'd be content leaving him as our guy for the next few years as long as we can continue to do it for cheap. Bucs were stupid to pay Todd so much, he's solid but nothing special either.

Pudge · **Posted:** Wed Oct 17, 2012 12:44 am

Bosher was excellent vs. the Raiders. Matched Lechler in every possible way. If he punts like that more often than not, he could be a perennial Pro Bowler.

DaveWaz · **Posted:** Wed Oct 17, 2012 12:54 am

Agreed but that was one game, he could get to the elite level but he's not there yet.

Pudge · **Posted:** Wed Oct 17, 2012 2:57 am

Agreed, just saying that if he can regular have 8-12 games like that a year, then he'll be elite.

He's been solid to excellent for the most part all year long. More often than not, coverage has been letting him down, not the other way around. I think this team has missed Owens and Antone Smith as gunners. DJ Davis is decent, but still needs a lot of work.

It's a far cry from last year, where I had completely written him off about a month into the season. He was terrible. Through the first half of the season, he was the worst punter in the league. Just to get where he is today, which is probably Top 15 is a huge improvement. It'd be like Blaine Gabbert transforming into Matt Stafford.

RobertAP · **Joined:** Tue Jan 10, 2006 3:15 pm **Posts:** 3534

We was bad at the beginning of last year. But I had confidence that he'd get better, even when everyone in the world wanted to get rid of him.

Nuccah · **Posted:** Thu Oct 18, 2012 7:04 am

I'm getting used to hearing 'man, Bosher BOOMED that one'.

backnblack · **Posted:** Thu Oct 18, 2012 8:40 am

Yeah, we as fans want to immediate results and everyone seemed to want him gone two months into his career but he launched a couple of serious bombs versus the Raiders...completely flipped the field. With the new KO startig point I find it interesting that catching a ball a few yards deep in the EZ and bringing it out is not unusual whereas in the past it seemed you rarely saw that. Despite an effort to protect players guys still want to go for the potentially big play. Bosher does not kick them out the back like some guys seem to though. The Raiders seemed like they returned or attempted to return most of our KOs.

RobertAP · **Joined:** Tue Jan 10, 2006 3:15 pm **Posts:** 3534

I think that we pick and choose when we want to bury it now... When you let them return it, it's pretty fair odds that they will be pinned inside of the 20. There's also the risk of a big return, of course.

Pudge · **Posted:** Thu Oct 18, 2012 12:33 pm

RobertAP wrote:

I think that we pick and choose when we want to bury it now... When you let them return it, it's pretty fair odds that they will be pinned inside of the 20. There's also the risk of a big return, of course.

Not really, not with our coverage units this year, which IMO aren't up to their usual standards. I don't think the Falcons are letting guys return kicks. I don't think kickers have any where close to that much control kicking off a tee to control whether the ball goes 60 yards (to the 5) or 70 yards (5 yards into endzone). If they take something off the ball, it's probably just as liable to go 50 yards as it would to only go 65. IMO, their level of control is a squib, pooch, onside, or just a regular kickoff, which is I'm going to kick the ball really hard. I of course could be wrong, since I'm not a kicker. Maybe late in a game it would favor purposefully kicking the ball so that a team will be forced to return it, but I think for the most part the risk/reward of wanting guys to return kicks is not in the favor of the kicking team. You're better off just kicking TBs as much as possible every time.

Bosher is one of the better KO guys in the league, and he's improved significantly from last year there.

RobertAP · **Joined:** Tue Jan 10, 2006 3:15 pm **Posts:** 3534

I don't have time to look up the stats right now, but I would be interested to see how we're faring on returned kicks.

Pudge · **Posted:** Thu Oct 18, 2012 4:44 pm

I looked at the numbers, and the average per KO return is down about 2 yards this year. But I think last year's numbers might be skewed by the big almost TD return by Harvin.

It just seems like a few too many 30-yard returns have been allowed this year than normal. It doesn't seem like the Falcons are winning the field position battle as much as they've done in the past. And not because of anything has to do with Bosher's kicking/punter IMO, but because the coverage units aren't quite up to snuff. And I think part of that is injuries to Owens and Antone Smith, Dent, Biermann, and Nicholas probably not seeing as many reps as normal due to their increased roles on defense, as well as the absences/departures of Grimes, Adkins, Ovie, and Weems.

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