All the talk on Sunday in London was Caleb Williams. That wasn’t a surprise. The #1 overall pick delivered yet another un-rookie-like performance with four touchdown passes in a rout of the Jacksonville Jaguars. He has looked as good as any Chicago Bears quarterback has in a long time. Not only is he throwing the ball with confidence and accuracy, but he also has clear command before and after the snap. Few rookies can adjust protections and manipulate coverage as he did. However, he wasn’t the only one who put together a special performance. Rookie punter Tory Taylor did as well.
The Australian native decided to put on a show for his cousins in the UK with two massive punts that traveled 64 and 59 yards, respectively. His 61.5 average blew away the franchise record in a game of 57.5 held by Maury Buford since 1985. Keep in mind Buford was a four-year veteran at that point and it was at Soldier Field. Taylor did it in his sixth-ever game almost 4,000 miles from his home stadium. Such an impressive accomplishment for a rookie.
Tory Taylor has become the weapon the Bears envisioned.
After a modest start in September, the 4th round pick turned up the juice over the past three games, averaging 52.54 yards per punt. That probably won’t hold for the rest of the year. Even so, it is a reminder of how talented Taylor is. People talk about his accuracy all the time, pinning teams inside the 15-yard line with unerring precision. They forget he has plenty of leg strength as well, launching 60-yard bombs when the situation calls for it. He is already a master of his craft. The only thing left was getting comfortable with the speed of the NFL level. That doesn’t seem to be a problem.
Ryan Poles got plenty of grief for “wasting” a precious draft pick on a specialist. The Bears GM was smart enough to know that having a good punter can tilt the game in your favor way more often than anybody wants to admit. Tory Taylor has already done that on multiple occasions.
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The cure for out kicking the coverage is for the punter to put it a little higher, giving up a little distance for more hang time. The extra hang time allows the gunners to get farther down the field, hopefully forcing a fair catch. I’m sure that Hightower (ST coord.) and the punting team will work on that. A 60 yard punt with a 12 yard return is not as good as a 52 yard punt with no return. The latter has almost no risk of a long runback, especially if it is a fair catch.
One of the few ways a team far behind can quickly get back into a game and change the momentum is via a punter outkicking his coverage without adequately great gunners getting down field quickly. Game scores and game conditions! Remember that class.
For the absolute life of me, I will NEVER understand why punters and field goal kickers are so undervalued when they have such a huge effect on the game. Would I draft a guy like this above the 4th round? Absofknlutely. I’ve been saying this forever. No one seems to listen to me! LOL
There was a term out punting your coverage, I think the Bears coverage team is learning how to get themselves down the field and knowing he punts the ball 10 to 15 yards further than most on every punt. He is putting a new wrinkle to the special teams in more ways than one. Just think, opposing coaches are starting to think, good we got Caleb on the offense off the field, then, wow what a punt, followed by, how are we going to deal with this defense.
Well I mean look at how it affected the Rams, I believe, in the final series. Backed all the way up to their end zone basically. We end up getting a hit on the qb to force the game winning int. Taylor was a huge part of that pinning them back deep. This team is exciting on all fronts. It’s been a long time since we could say that. Don’t be suprised if the Bears make a deep run this year.