Special Teams are a very important component of a successful football team, just ask the San Diego Chargers about it. They were beat by the Denver Broncos on Monday Night football in front of the world by a score of 34-23. Now some say if it weren't for the 2 run backs that Eddie Royal made, the Chargers would have won the game. Hockey puck (no offense hockeyhippo), that wasn't necessarily the case at all. Let's see, if you take the 2 run backs of Royal's away and you take back the run back of Sproles away then the final score still comes out 20-17 Broncos victory. Hmm, ludicrous thinking there dolt fans.

But what it did do was put points on the board at an opportune time. I know, some will say, yeah but it also put our defense back out on the field without much rest. Let's look at it this way, if the offense sustains a long drive and scores andon the first play of the opposing touch they fumble the ball back to us then that puts the offense right back on the field with no rest. I don't hear them complaining and these players are conditioned to be ready on every play to go back on the field. It's football, things happen.

After the jump we'll take a look at our next opponent the Baltimore Ravens and see where they fit in our scheme of special teams and why we let Brett Kerns go. Here are some terms for punting:

Coffin corner: A punt angled toward both the sideline and goal line.

Directional kicking: Angling a kick toward the sideline to reduce the field for the returner.

Hang time: The length of time the ball is in the air following a kick – 4.5 seconds is ideal for a kick less than 50 yards.

Net punting: The distance of a punt minus the return yardage. Subtract 20 yards on touchbacks.

Pooch punt: A short, punch kick when a team is in the opponent's territory.

Our next game coming up is against the Baltimore Ravens a team that has placed more fear in the minds of any other team of the last decade with their fearsome defense. Though they have struggled some on defense they are still the team to beat andtheir disappointments have come from the secondary. Still with a 3-3 record they have only lost their last 3 games by a total of 11 points, that's not too bad. They are a very good football team and in my opinion they are still in the hunt for the afc north title. Let's take a look at their special teams.

Kicking: Steven Hauschka has made just 5 field goals out of 7 attempts so far this season. He is perfect inside of 40 yards andhas missed 2 in the 40-49 yard range. He has not made an attempt from 50 yards on. This may be an area we can have success in especially with our defense putting pressure on Flacco. Keep them beyond the 36 yard line and profit from it, the Ravens are 2-5 on 4th down conversions and 35-77 on 3rd down. The Ravens have scored 22 touch downs so they know how to put the ball in the endzone, holding their opponents to 13. That's just over 2 a game giving up and almost 4 for themselves, that's where they win. So it isn't safe to say that just keeping Hauschka off of the field will help us win. The Ravens defense has been somewhat stingy when teams have made it to their side of the field making them kick 13 field goals.

Punting: Sam Koch has made 26 punts this season with a 43.8 yd avg andthe longest was 60 yards without giving up a TD. One point here though is they had a blocked punt. Their opponents avg was 44.9 a little less with no TD's. Brett Kerns' avg was 46.1 slightly more than Koch's so why did McDanielslet him go? The reason is simple. Net yardage after the punt. The Ravens net yardage after the punt is 37.9 yards with a difference of 5.9 yards. Brett Kerns' difference his net yardage is 34.5 for a 11.6 yard average. Almost 2 times further than Koch. Kerns was 2nd in the afcin total yards after the punt with 194, being 2nd in this category doesn't make you look good, in fact it is second to last. This is not acceptable, then can all of the blame be put on Kerns? Yes and I think we all know the answer, 'hang time'. Kerns can probably boot the ball as far as the next guy but is he directional? On occasion. Does he boot it high enough (hang time) to give his special team players a chance to get to the point of attack? On occasion. Was Brett Kerns more of a liability to the team than he was worth? One occasion too many and the straw that finally broke the camels back was in the Monday Night game in San Diego letting Sproles set up for the kill.

Whether special teams will play a factor in this up coming contest with the baltimore Ravens is yet to be seen, but one thing for sure field position is one of the most important parts of the game, just ask the "Dude" in Stats Don't Lie.

McDanielsdecided to make the switch this week when the Denver Broncos signed P Mitch Berger a 16 year veteran withSuper Bowl experience. Berger, 6'4 228lbs is a Pro Bowl punter that has been aroundthe league. I am sure Berger will get plenty of chances to show us what he's got left. Hopefully with his experience, hangtime and directional accuracy he will help our defense win the field position battle.

Eddie have you been in the film room studying the Ravens ST? Hope so dude, we may need you to reel off one in this game. Go Broncos.