The Kickoff

[RobbRiddicksTDLeap]

Considering there was no replay of the turnover, I was curious if anyone knows exactly what happened on that play? I have no idea who made contact, and how no Bills player could get to the ball. 
 

Sorry Mods, if this is overblown on the board.

[BillsShredder83]

Freak play. Blocking team guys see and hear a booming kick, watch it soar over their head like they always do, then the ball stalls and lands behind them, when everything looks extremely routine.

 

Mckittrick looks like he tried to adjust but the wind just kept taking it more forward then anyone expected

Edited September 27, 2021 by BillsShredder83

[Bleeding Bills Blue]

Just now, BillsShredder83 said:

Freaking play. Blocking team guys see and hear a booming kick, watch it soar over their head like they always do, then the ball stalls and lands behind them, when everything looks extremely routine. Freak play

 

I think there was a plan around it - usually kickers aren't that far upfield.

[DJB]

Edit

[BillsShredder83]

1 minute ago, dneveu said:

 

I think there was a plan around it - usually kickers aren't that far upfield.

Def coulda been. Smarter play on their behalf than it was a "dumb" play by us. Just weird. STs will coach to look for this again especially at home games

[wiseman3]

2 minutes ago, dneveu said:

 

I think there was a plan around it - usually kickers aren't that far upfield.

I don't think so. I was in the stands and the ball just died, and almost was moving backwards from the freak wind gust. 

[Brennan Huff]

As soon as we kicked the extra point to make it 21-0 I ran up to go the bathroom and to get a beer. By the time I got back to my seat it was 21-14. 

[Rocky Landing]

Booming high kick with a backwards spin. wind pushed it away from McKenzie, and then the backwards spin bounced it away from him.

[Shaw66]

It was all the wind.   McKenzie was lined up on the goal line, which it turned out was way too deep.  Hopkins got a lot of air under the ball, and when it was about half way to the goal line, the wind held it up.  McKenzie suddenly realized that the ball was going to fall way short of the goal.   He broke forward hard, and I think slightly to his left.   The ball essentially stopped in the air and fell almost straight down and to McKenzie's right.   He couldn't get there in time to catch it.   Then it was a free for all, with the ball bouncing around like in a pin-ball machine.   

 

The Bills were unprepared for the wind on that play.   I've seen games like that before, where kickoffs are going 15 yards beyond the back of the end zone in one direction and landing on the 20 in the other.  Bills should have known a kick like that was possible.   After that kickoff, the Bills put Hyde back with McKenzie on punts, because they realized that it was too unpredictable.   They should have had two back on that kickoff, too.  

[Augie]

I seem to recall Paul McGuire punting a ball that actually landed behind him. Crazy winds! 

 

We should stick that one in our bag of tricks for some unsuspecting team coming to town. You just never know……

[Shaw66]

8 minutes ago, BillsShredder83 said:

Freak play. Blocking team guys see and hear a booming kick, watch it soar over their head like they always do, then the ball stalls and lands behind them, when everything looks extremely routine.

 

Mckittrick looks like he tried to adjust but the wind just kept taking it more forward then anyone expected

Exactly right.  The front eight guys didn't see anything unusual.  The ball flew overhead as usual.   From the stands, however, after the ball had traveled maybe 25 yards, you could see that it was high and it was not going to carry.   McKenzie saw it too, but it was too late.  

 

You know how the Bills had to hold the ball on all the kickoffs?   I was thinking about how the special teams somehow adjust their kick coverage when they do that - the assignments of some guys change.   Well, in a wind like that, the assignments of some of the return team should change, too.  McKenzie needed help back there, instead of being a single guy.   He's been doing a good job, but he isn't Willie Mays.  

[RiotAct]

such an oddity about the stadium.  I could barely feel any wind at all in my seats, yet it was whipping around at field level.

[Buffalo Boy]

3 minutes ago, Augie said:

I seem to recall Paul McGuire punting a ball that actually landed behind him. Crazy winds! 

 

We should stick that one in our bag of tricks for some unsuspecting team coming to town. You just never know……

    Don’t remember who we played in 90 but their team punted into the wind ( 40+) and it came right back to the punter. Craziest play I ever saw

[GunnerBill]

10 minutes ago, Shaw66 said:

It was all the wind.   McKenzie was lined up on the goal line, which it turned out was way too deep.  Hopkins got a lot of air under the ball, and when it was about half way to the goal line, the wind held it up.  McKenzie suddenly realized that the ball was going to fall way short of the goal.   He broke forward hard, and I think slightly to his left.   The ball essentially stopped in the air and fell almost straight down and to McKenzie's right.   He couldn't get there in time to catch it.   Then it was a free for all, with the ball bouncing around like in a pin-ball machine.   

 

The Bills were unprepared for the wind on that play.   I've seen games like that before, where kickoffs are going 15 yards beyond the back of the end zone in one direction and landing on the 20 in the other.  Bills should have known a kick like that was possible.   After that kickoff, the Bills put Hyde back with McKenzie on punts, because they realized that it was too unpredictable.   They should have had two back on that kickoff, too.  

 

That is how it looked to me on TV. Just a freak play. I don't blame Isaiah at all. Combination of wind and that funny shaped ball y'all play with.  

[thenorthremembers]

Horrible, very odd bounce.  No

21 minutes ago, RobbRiddicksTDLeap said:

Considering there was no replay of the turnover, I was curious if anyone knows exactly what happened on that play? I have no idea who made contact, and how no Bills player could get to the ball. 
 

Sorry Mods, if this is overblown on the board.

Horrible, very odd bounce.   No one on the Bills had to make contact, live ball on a kickoff once the ball goes ten yards.  

[Shaw66]

2 minutes ago, RiotAct said:

such an oddity about the stadium.  I could barely feel any wind at all in my seats, yet it was whipping around at field level.

You must have been sitting on the south side, the Bills' side.  On the WFT side, wind came blowing in from the southwest corner and right into the faces of the fans.   In the sun it wasn't too bad; if you were in the shade it was cold.  

 

An interesting thing about the wind was that it was blowing diagonally across the top of the stadium (you could see all the flags at the top of the stadium blowing that way), but on the field it was blowing almost directly from goal line to goal line.  

[RiotAct]

Just now, Shaw66 said:

You must have been sitting on the south side, the Bills' side.  On the WFT side, wind came blowing in from the southwest corner and right into the faces of the fans.   In the sun it wasn't too bad; if you were in the shade it was cold.  

 

An interesting thing about the wind was that it was blowing diagonally across the top of the stadium (you could see all the flags at the top of the stadium blowing that way), but on the field it was blowing almost directly from goal line to goal line.  

Yup - I was in 133.

[Big Turk]

15 minutes ago, Shaw66 said:

It was all the wind.   McKenzie was lined up on the goal line, which it turned out was way too deep.  Hopkins got a lot of air under the ball, and when it was about half way to the goal line, the wind held it up.  McKenzie suddenly realized that the ball was going to fall way short of the goal.   He broke forward hard, and I think slightly to his left.   The ball essentially stopped in the air and fell almost straight down and to McKenzie's right.   He couldn't get there in time to catch it.   Then it was a free for all, with the ball bouncing around like in a pin-ball machine.   

 

The Bills were unprepared for the wind on that play.   I've seen games like that before, where kickoffs are going 15 yards beyond the back of the end zone in one direction and landing on the 20 in the other.  Bills should have known a kick like that was possible.   After that kickoff, the Bills put Hyde back with McKenzie on punts, because they realized that it was too unpredictable.   They should have had two back on that kickoff, too.  

 

The one I remember the most is the Tom Tupa punt where he punted the ball and it literally got held up in the wind and started coming backwards. Think it netted like 6 yards or something...

1 minute ago, Shaw66 said:

You must have been sitting on the south side, the Bills' side.  On the WFT side, wind came blowing in from the southwest corner and right into the faces of the fans.   In the sun it wasn't too bad; if you were in the shade it was cold.  

 

An interesting thing about the wind was that it was blowing diagonally across the top of the stadium (you could see all the flags at the top of the stadium blowing that way), but on the field it was blowing almost directly from goal line to goal line.  

 

Another interesting thing that I was told on a tour of the stadium is that the swirling winds are a result of there only being a single tunnel entrance instead of two which would balance it out. This causes all kinds of weird wind patterns on the field

[Ethan in Cleveland]

Freak play but the guy that blew it was Gilliam not McKenzie. Short kicks like those need to be fielded by the up men.  Gilliam never looked for the ball. He has to catch that short kick.

[Shaw66]

Just now, Big Turk said:

 

The one I remember the most is the Tom Tupa punt where he punted the ball and it literally got held up in the wind and started coming backwards. Think it netted like 6 yards or something...

I don't remember seeing something like that in pro games, but I was at a UConn game one time when one of the Grammaticas was playing for the opponent, and he was sending kickoffs 20 yards beyond the end zone.   In that game there were a couple of those comebacker punts that netted essentially nothing.   

 

One other thing about yesterday - the wind was blowing harder at the top of the stadium than on the ground.   The flags were whipping around all day, but the streamers on the goal posts sometimes settled down, although not for too long.   Hopkins got more air under that kickoff than usual, and it actually seemed to keep rising in the wind, almost like a round ball with backspin rises.   The flight was a little unusual - your brain was telling you the ball should be flying and starting to come down, but your eyes were telling you that it was still rising and stalling.  That's when McKenzie knew he was in trouble.