File Under: Buffalo Bills, Brian Moorman, Bobby April, Rian Lindell, unblocked kicks
07/08 — When it comes to the Buffalo Bills, there are always a lot of positives on the special teams. For instance, last season the Bills led the NFL in punt coverage, allowing a mere 5.3 yards per punt return.
"That's pretty impressive in this league, to be No. 1 in anything, so I'm proud of them," punter Brian Moorman told buffalobills.com of his coverage unit after the season. "Just like every other year, they're making me look good."
Well, it seems like it's everyone making everyone else look good on the Buffalo specials. That has a lot to do with Moorman, the Bills punter since 2001; Rian Lindell, their kicker since '03, and Bobby April, their ST guru since '04.
Here's another little big stat in which the Bills' specialists have reigned for a while: unblocked kicks.
Buffalo has not had a punt, field goal or extra point blocked for five consecutive seasons.
All right, you say, that sounds good but how unusual is that in the NFL?
The answer: It's very special. The Bills are the only team with no blocked kicks in the last five seasons. The St. Louis Rams have had one rejection, then a trio of AFC North teams — Baltimore, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh —are next with four snuffs.
You may or may not think that's impressive, but there's more: The Bills are not only the NFL's only team to go without having a kick blocked from 2003-07, they are the only team to have no kicks blocked in any five-year from 1996 through last season. Here are the longest such streaks in the league in that 12-year span:
| Team | Seasons | Streak |
| Buffalo | 2003-07 | 5 |
| Chicago | 1998-2001 | 4 |
| St. Louis | 2002-05 | 4 |
| Tennessee | 1999-2001 | 3 |
Perhaps this trend in terms of longer streaks would be more impressive. OK, consider that the last time Buffalo had a kick blocked was a field goal try by Mike Hollis in the fourth game of the 2002 season. So that makes it 92 consecutive games and 798 straight kicks (457 punts, 161 FGs, 180 PATs) without having a kick turned around on them.
Consider that since 2000, teams that have had at least one punt blocked in a game have a winning percentage of .412 and teams that have had at least one FG blocked have a .445 winning percentage. Buffalo's impeccable protection of its foot-men has surely supplied a few extra victories to the last five seasons.
This is a streak that perhaps only a special teams coach could love, but it is nevertheless impressive. And the Jets specialists and their new ST coach, Kevin O'Dea, no doubt would like to offer a wish for the Bills to extend their unblockable streak to 99 games through Game 7 of the 2008 season, before the AFC East rivals meet for the first time up at "The Ralph" on Nov. 2.
These AFC East Radar entries will run twice a week up through the week that the Jets' full squad begins practicing July 24. This is the schedule:
Week of July 1 — Miami Down, New England Up
Week of July 7 — Buffalo Up, Jets Down
Week of July 14 — Miami Up, Buffalo Down
Week of July 21 — New England Down, Jets Up
Ablity Mouwon Said:
Thu, July 10, 2008 - 12:39am EDT"i am a big madden fan, and reggie bush juke move rating is on 100 and his rating is 86 -1 from his rookie rating but lean washsinton is only 82, the jets dont understand how dangerous and useful lean washiston can be. people we have a weestbrook on our roster and i neva undrstand why people always over veiw the little guys like lean, this year we should run 65 percent of ther time until 8manbock"
Row Said:
Thu, July 10, 2008 - 1:56pm EDT"Discipline is really all it takes to do well on ST's. We have a very broad group of guys that can do basically anything. I am sure we will do even better this year on ST's. Darelle returning punts would make me extremely happy. No one would kick to Revis. Check out the youtube. We should run as long as it works. USE THE FULLBACK THIS SEASON!!! GO JETS"
Eric NM Said:
Thu, July 10, 2008 - 4:20pm EDT"Regarding Jets special teams, I see them worse this year due to Westhoff absence. This is a major loss that has not been fully appreciated. It's pretty easy to be special teams coach with the Bears with perhaps the best punter and certainly the best returner in the league. "
Howard Said:
Tue, July 8, 2008 - 7:02pm EDT"very impressive streak for the bills as B.P. says speical teams are the easiest way to turn a team around and probably keeping it playing well"
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