Hail Rodgers: Why the Green Bay Packers beat the New York Giants

Hidden Yardage

Special teams tend to be an afterthought to most, an area where the routine usually happens and it is only becomes a topic of conversation when something goes wrong.

That doesn’t mean they aren’t having an impact, however. Against the Giants, Green Bay’s special teams unit stepped up numerous times to have a significant effect on the game, even though it may have not been immediately noticeable.

Multiple punts sent to the Green Bay return team ended up in advantageous spots. Of the eight punts kicked by the Giants, five ended up at or beyond the Green Bay 20; three of those saw Green Bay start their offense from their own 45, and two started right in Green Bay territory.

Among those returns, Micah Hyde brought two up for at least 15 yards himself (though one was brought back due to a Packers penalty). When looking at kick returns as well, Green Bay saw both Jeff Janis and Christine Michael bring a kickoff into great field position (Janis to the Packers’ 44 yard line; Michael to the Packers’ 37).

On the other end, the punting and coverage units were even more on their games.

Jacob Schum continually flipped the field for the Packers. Three times his punts pinned the Giants back at least at their own 11 yard line, twice his punts were downed, and once there was a fair catch. His net average punting yardage for the game (41.3) is third-best among playoff punters through the Wild Card round, and would have been tied for ninth during the regular season.

The coverage team was even better than Schum himself, helping immensely in making his performance end up looking as good as it does. They keenly timed the downing of those punts, were completely on top of the one fair catch, and allowed a total of four yards across the three returns actually attempted by the Giants.

The contributions from the constantly overlooked third facet of football may not have been as brazenly noticeable as what the offense and defense did, but the bonus chunks of yardage given to the Packers (or, to look at it another way, taken away from the Giants) through special teams play made plenty of difference in Green Bay not only winning this game, but kept it within striking distance early and put things away for good late.