Catching Ducks

The Seahawks ended the first half of today's game with a mess of a play. With two seconds left, they sent the kicking team out to attempt a field goal. Unfortunately, their kicker had been injured in an earlier play. That meant their punter was sent out to attempt his very first NFL field goal ever. We never got to see it happen, though, because the back-up holder is the punter, so they had a back-up holder out there, too, and he fumbled it. (And Tennessee took it back for a touchdown. Ouch.)

During all of this, former NFL punter Chris Kluwe tweeted: "Dropping a snap's never fun. Been there before. [pause] Well that really escalated quickly. That's why you never want to get to your backup specialists. That's also why you have to know when to bite the bullet and just go down. Losing three is bad, giving them seven is far worse. [Someone asked if the back-up holder had ever held for a field goal before.] Doubtful. He'll have taken maybe 8-10 reps at some point during preseason."


During the game, he was also working for FoxSports, live-chatting the ALCS baseball game. (Kluwe was a pitcher in high school.)

question: How much does the emergency punter work on punting? If a team lost both the placekicker and punter in a game, does the guy they trot out there have the slightest clue what he's doing?

Kluwe: We practice doing backup stuff maybe once or twice a year. If you ever get to a point where both the punter and kicker are down, odds are the team is going for it on every fourth down.

Labels: Seattle Seahawks, sports