Sepulveda's last punt of the season...

[Mosca]

Am I the only one who expected a boomer out of our highly touted 4th round linebacker/kicker? Before the snap I was saying it to MJ; "We neded it here, if ever you want to prove you were worth it Danny Boy, Aussie roll one to the 5 yard line!" And then we get... a low 40 yarder*? WTF? With a 16 yard return??????

I dunno. I wanted to see that Ray Guy award under pressure. The guy is good, but I didn't seen anything that I thought is game changing this year. I wanted to see The Bionic Leg, at least a couple times.

*Gamebook said it was a 40 yarder, I had it as 39.

[Atlanta Dan]

Originally Posted by Mosca

Am I the only one who expected a boomer out of our highly touted 4th round linebacker/kicker? Before the snap I was saying it to MJ; "We neded it here, if ever you want to prove you were worth it Danny Boy, Aussie roll one to the 5 yard line!" And then we get... a low 40 yarder*? WTF? With a 16 yard return??????

I dunno. I wanted to see that Ray Guy award under pressure. The guy is good, but I didn't seen anything that I thought is game changing this year. I wanted to see The Bionic Leg, at least a couple times.

*Gamebook said it was a 40 yarder, I had it as 39.

Sep kicked similar punts at the end of the Cleveland game at Heinz and in the OT against the Jets with similarly unfavorable return results ; only a sketchy holding call kept the Browns from taking over around the Steelers 40 on their last drive

Nothing disastrous this season but few game changing punts in crucial situations that justified trading up for a 4th round pick to get Sep.

Part of a draft where the only apparent potential standout based on this year's play is Woodley - not encouraging for a team that has some major holes to fill

[MasterOfPuppets]

i've been thinkin the same thing all season !!! where the hell were the 55 - 60 yd punts he was rippin off in preseason ? he was pretty good this year in puttin them inside the 20, but i didn't see much of the touted leg strengh. he's looked pretty avg to me. and while were on the subject, what happend to those kickoffs that reed was driving in the endzone at the beginning of the season?

[Stlr4ever]

That last punt put our defense in an extremely difficult position. I knew it wouldn't take much for the Jags to get into FG position. When they have a big&strong OL and a QB that can run like a RB, the outcome was hardly surprising. Our punter should be ashamed of himself for that sissy type of punt. If anything he should have booted the ball into the end zone. You just can't give the opponent that kind of FP when the game is on the line. We can't blame the Defense; they played their hearts out.

[fansince'76]

Originally Posted by Stlr4ever

Our punter should be ashamed of himself for that sissy type of punt. If anything he should have booted the ball into the end zone.

An 80-yard+ punt? Right.

[SanAntonio'sHomes]

My only question to this whole point is why he didnt kick the ball out of bounds. Directional kicking/coffin corner punts have disappeared in the league today. Kicking out of bounds in that situation would have at least saved us the 16yds on the return.

[Stlr4ever]

Originally Posted by fansince'76

An 80-yard+ punt? Right.

Nope, at least 50-55 yards. Sep kicked several short punts. When we are playing a team like the Jags, the last thing we can afford to do is give them good FPs consistently.

[Da Steeler Soprano]

2 words...Special Teams Every single player on ST is horrible

[HometownGal]

I think for a rookie punter, Sep did a pretty good job. He finished in the middle of the pack in the NFL with a 42.4 avg and more than half of his punts were downed inside the 20/10 YL's. I thought he had pretty good hang time on the majority of his punts, as well. Unfortunately, with the lackluster play of our ST's, his stats suffered.

[OneForTheToe]

Well, he has never had a kick blocked in the NFL.


On another note, I have noticed that his kicks have been shorter the last few weeks. Maybe he has a tired leg? Remember how Ben said his arm turned into a noodle by the end of his rookie year. Next year there will be no need to kick 60 yarders in the preseason - save the leg for when it counts. Still, he has been very good overall - especially with regard to placing the ball inside the 20.