The Philadelphia Eagles' special teams? They’re not even ordinary teams. Going by what you see on the field and on the statistics sheet, the Eagles have the worst special teams unit in the NFL.
Kicker Alex Henery has done a pretty good job, but that’s about it. The Eagles’ punt return team, with rookie Damaris Johnson, is ranked 31st out of 32 teams.
And their kickoff return team, with rookie Brandon Boykin, is also ranked 31st.
It’s not much better on the other side of the ball. The Eagles are 24th in punt coverage and 29th in kickoff coverage and they’ve managed to go 3-1, though they’re losing the battle for field position in every game.
It happened again on Sunday, when the Giants dominated the kicking game except for the two guys who actually kick it -- Henery was 4-for-4 and the Giants’ Lawrence Tynes missed two possible game-winners in the final seconds.
But the Giants’ David Wilson returned six kickoffs for 217 yards, an average of 36.2 yards per return, which would have led the NFL last season. Wilson enabled the Giants to start drives on their 39, 43 and 35 and the Eagles’ 49.
Coach Andy Reid said he talked to coordinator Bobby April on Monday morning about his special teams in general and kickoff coverage in particular and the two vowed to fix the problem.
“We’ve got some work to do on the kickoff coverage and kickoff return units,’’ Reid said. “There’s no reason we should be playing like we are in those spots.”
And this was not just one bad week. In fact, after Sunday’s game Wilson let it slip that the Giants expected to gash the Eagles in the return game.
“The coaches watched film this week,’’ Wilson said, “and felt I could return one [for a touchdown] and it almost came to fruition.”
The Eagles were without their top two special teams players, safety Colt Anderson (knee) and linebacker Akeem Jordan (hamstring), but Reid said that was no excuse for the unit’s poor play against the Giants.
“We won the turnover battle,’’ Reed said, “but we lost the field position battle.”
For more up-to-the-minute news and analysis on the Philadelphia Eagles from blogger Kevin Noonan, follow @CBSEagles.
