In football – often called a “game of inches” – field position is key and often determines whether you are on the winning or losing side when the final whistle blows.
The Ravens have been fortunate in their history to possess some of the best punters to ever grace the NFL, particularly current punter Sam Koch.
Koch owns a 45.2 career gross average and 39.4 career net, both marks that rank first in Ravens history. In a position that doesn’t draw much attention unless there’s a mistake, the quiet punter has been deemed responsible by special teams coach Jerry Rosburg for changing the game.
“He’s a unique punter,” said Rosburg. “He’s changing the way the game is going to be played. “It’s remarkable to me that more have not necessarily followed the lead.
“Perhaps that’s an indication of how difficult it is to do what he’s doing, because you don’t see much of it – even from the highly-skilled professionals that we see on a weekly basis.”
In a recent interview with Koch, a 2015 Pro Bowler, on the Coach’s Buzz radio show, Sam shared with host Miles Goodman and myself some insight into his arsenal of punts and how they can change games almost instantly.
“With Jerry coming into the picture in year three, he was kind of the one who propelled me to where I’m at now,” remarked Koch. “I got to give a lot of thanks to him for showing me how to properly drop a ball. When I first got into the league there were things that nobody ever taught me. Most of it was just figuring it out on my own.
“He showed me a few things that I just kind of took and tried to run with and with that we also created some different kinds of kicks you guys will see now.
Koch compared these new kicks to the game of golf as far as how he kicks the football at different angles, getting different results.
“It is almost identical to golf in a way,” said Koch. “First off I have the trust from Harbaugh, I have the trust from Jerry and I have the trust of [Kicking Consultant Randy Brown] to be able to go out there and execute these punts we execute in practice.
“With them having the trust in me it allows us to work with different punts and over the last three years, we’ve tried dropping it at different angles, different ways just to see what we could come up with. In terms of a rugby punt, if we drop the ball with a slight-left lean, I can get the ball to do a fade. If I drop it with a slight-right lean, I can get it to do a draw. If I drop it with a little bit of a back-lean with a left-lean, I can actually get the ball to fade to a draw. It’s very weird.
“The way the wind affects it as well also helps certain punts in certain situations,” he added. “It was one of those things that we went out there and after our first game that we used this, three years ago against Pittsburgh on Sunday night. We had Antonio Brown there and we used what we call a left-liner and it worked so great that we just kind of started experimenting and that’s kind of where we led to today and to use these punts to get the returners out of the game.”
Koch also explained the difficulty of one of the most underrated jobs he has which is as the primary holder for kicker Justin Tucker on field goal and extra point attempts.
“We take pride in everything we do out on the field,” said Koch. “As far as the snapping, the holding and the kicking, we take pride in going out there and being the best. We take pride in everything we do whether it’s holding, punting, kicking or kicking off.
“Whatever it is. In practice, we really try to focus on the start which is Morgan [Cox] and his snaps and where is the optimal place to put that ball that way Tucker, can always see it and it’s easy for me to catch it and put it down in the spot we have designated for Tucker and for him to feel confident enough to put it through.
“We practice 10,000-plus times on doing this. There’s a lot more to the holding that meets the eye.
“You can really tell a lot when someone catches a snap whether or not they have good hands. If they are a little shaky with the catch, they tend to catch it with their palms as opposed to their fingers and being able to put it down, feeling the laces, which seam your hands are on and whether or not you need to turn it clockwise or counter-clockwise.
“There’s a lot of stuff to do in 1.3 seconds. I think fans take that for granted until something happens.”
The results the trio known as “The Wolfpack” have produced have been second to none, and the organization felt highly enough of them to keep them intact for another season.
It’s not the sexiest of positions by any fans means. It is, however, one that I am thankful Sam Koch holds down with his blue collar work ethic and forward-thinking innovation.
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