CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Browns readied themselves for the potential to face a fake punt against the Los Angeles Rams last week, and now, they are taking on the challenge of facing an AFC North Division rival in the Baltimore Ravens, who bring their own kind of difficulties on special teams.
When attempting an onside kick in the waning moments of their 33-28 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium last week, Justin Tucker went without a tee, and instead, launched a drop kick that Baltimore very nearly recovered.
“Never seen that,” Browns special teams coordinator Mike Priefer said. “We showed that in the meeting. I have never seen it before. I do not know what the rule is. They have to come up with something because that was offside, illegal formation, illegal motion or something. It had to be some sort of penalty.
“I guess that is them trying to be creative. You can fair catch that ball because the ball never hit the ground after the drop kick. As soon as his foot hits it, if it goes straight up in the air, you can fair catch it, which Kansas City wisely did. We are ready for anything.”
For Priefer to be puzzled by the drop kick is significant, as he has been a special teams coach in the National Football League for more than a decade and has a reputation of creating good coverage and return units.
But to him, the drop kick is the Ravens “thinking outside the box” under the direction of coordinator Chris Horton and head coach John Harbaugh, a former special teams coach himself.
“I think we do some creative things with our kickoff coverage unit in terms of the kicker putting the ball in the corner and letting our guys cover, twist and move and make our guys hard to block,” Priefer said. “Our guys have embraced that. So far this year, we have done a pretty good job of kickoff coverage.
“Every week poses a challenge or threat based on who their returner is and what schemes they use and how they block and this is a very well-coached team. My creative thinking out of the box is how we can cover better, cover what they do well and stop what they do well.”
Although the Browns are expecting some kind of wrinkle when taking on the Ravens, Priefer is confident his players will be ready to positively affect the game.
“Try to make an impact play every single time you go out there because you really do not know when that play is going to occur throughout the course of the game. You do not know if it is going to be the first quarter, the fourth quarter, overtime when that opportunity is going to arrive. That is what we try to prepare for every time we go out there.
“It is going to pose a great challenge for us, and I look forward to it. I kind of like that. We went up against a good special teams unit Sunday night against the Rams, and I thought we did pretty well. Hopefully, we will do the same or better on Sunday afternoon, but we have our work cut out for us.”