CAN SOMEONE ANSWER A QUESTION FOR ME?

[fatalflaw]

Please somebody explain this to me: does it make any sense to fair-catch a punt inside the ten yard line? If you let it go it seems to me there’s a good chance it will bounce either inside and you get it on the 20, or backwards and you’ve gained a few yards. The downside is maybe getting it on the 5 instead of the 8. Just doesn’t seem to make sense, unless I’m missing something?

 

[eap33]

It's pretty simple, actually. It's better to have the ball on the 8 than have it bounce toward the endzone with the kicking team waiting to drop it on the 1.

 

[Bensalama21]

It's pretty simple, actually. It's better to have the ball on the 8 than have it bounce toward the endzone with the kicking team waiting to drop it on the 1.

This plus coaches do it for the fact that the ball can be bounced straight into one of our blockers if it bounces weird or if the gunner pushes him into it.

 

[Wildcatk23]

Its the smart thing to do, considering all the other possibilities than it actually going into the inzone.

 

[El Guapo]

I'll venture to say that it's just a trend in NFL coach think. A coach could reason that 1st and 10 on the five yard line is much better than 1st and 10 on the one yard line. The fair catch makes sense to some degree versus a run back because you'd at least want your returner believing that he's not going to get hit and/or taking his eye off the ball a split second early to evade the tackle.

Punters have gotten very good in the past few years at dropping the nose of the ball on kicks to get back spin. I can't remember ever seeing more balls downed inside the 5 yard line. That said I think that it's causing coaches to rethink the mantra of not catching anything between the goal and the 10.

 

[fatalflaw]

All good points that I hadn't considered, thanks for the input (glad I'M not the coach!). GO PACK!!