Green Bay Packers: Divisional Round special teams recap
By Kenn Korb
Jacob Schum
Punts:
- 52 yards (DAL 41); 8 yard return (DAL 49)
- 46 yards (DAL 38); Fair Catch
- 66 yards; Touchback
Not as much work for Schum this week; in it, he had another decent performance, given the circumstances.
As opposed to most weeks where he tends to mix in at least a couple short kicks, Schum was able to put a bunch of distance behind all three of his opportunities this time around.
Unfortunately, due to a combination of field position woes and coverage issues shown by the punt coverage unit, his punts still ended up not being as positive for the Packers as they would appear to on the surface.
Take his first punt for example. He gets more than half of a field behind the attempt; still, because this attempt started from the Green Bay 7 yard line, a small return was all it took to basically plant the Cowboys right at midfield.
The second punt was a slightly better outcome despite slightly worse distance, but again due to having to kick from well within touchback range in Green Bay territory, the Cowboys ended up with excellent starting field position despite the good distance supplied by Schum and no return attempted by Dallas.
The final punt got by far the most distance, but ended up losing the most of its potency. It did travel 66 yards (though a sizable portion was admittedly due to rolling after first striking the ground), but with Schum unable to give the ball some sort of backspin nor the coverage team being able to stop the ball from reaching the endzone, it lost 20 of its net yardage.
This wasn’t the best outcome Schum has reached with his efforts before, but his ability to pick up large chunks of yardage with his leg prevented giving Dallas an even greater advantage — something which could not have been ruled out, considering the shanks and poor distance kicks which have plagued him at times in his 2016 season.
While it was a good overall outing for Schum, fans will have to hope he can manage to garner about as much distance, but with better starting positions to work with, in the upcoming game against the Falcons (and beyond).