i have not heard anything mentioned by announcers abt crosby's screwball pat's and fg's...i swear they go left-to right, right-to-left, left-to-right-to-left, right-to-left-to-right...he turns the routine kick into a white-knuckler for me

i have never seen a kicker with that much weird action on the ball so consistently...and it's not the wind

but he is smoking this year...shoulda gone to the probowl...no brainer

His kicks certainly aren't the prettiest but as long as they keep going in, I've got no complaints. He does make it a little hard to predict if the thing is going in though. Yes...NO....Yes...Crap...ohhhh...YES!!!

quote:

Originally posted by MsPacman:
Yes...NO....Yes...Crap...ohhhh...YES!!!

quote:

Originally posted by Hauser:

quote:

Originally posted by MsPacman:
Yes...NO....Yes...Crap...ohhhh...YES!!!

Don't have to say a word, do ya...

Are we still talking about football?

quote:

Originally posted by Pakrz:
Are we still talking about football?

I am, but I'm not too sure about you guys.

Minds in the gutter...

Exactly! I commented to my Dad on Sunday, that I aint never seen a kicker who kicks so many knuckle-balls. There was one a week or two ago that was wobbling to the left and then all of a sudden jerked back to the right and over the cross-bar it flew. Wonder what causes that type of ball action?

quote:

Originally posted by GBP1:
Exactly! I commented to my Dad on Sunday, that I aint never seen a kicker who kicks so many knuckle-balls. There was one a week or two ago that was wobbling to the left and then all of a sudden jerked back to the right and over the cross-bar it flew. Wonder what causes that type of ball action?

Reading this after MsPacmans-

quote:

Originally posted by GBP1:
Exactly! I commented to my Dad on Sunday, that I aint never seen a kicker who kicks so many knuckle-balls. There was one a week or two ago that was wobbling to the left and then all of a sudden jerked back to the right and over the cross-bar it flew. Wonder what causes that type of ball action?

Looks to me like he's kicking the snot out of it and it's a velocity thing. Like english on a cue ball.

quote:

Originally posted by Pistol GB:

quote:

Originally posted by GBP1:
Exactly! I commented to my Dad on Sunday, that I aint never seen a kicker who kicks so many knuckle-balls. There was one a week or two ago that was wobbling to the left and then all of a sudden jerked back to the right and over the cross-bar it flew. Wonder what causes that type of ball action?

Looks to me like he's kicking the snot out of it and it's a velocity thing. Like english on a cue ball.

He is kicking the snot out of it but it's nothing like english on a cue ball or a slice on a golfball. He's kicking a true knuckleball like in baseball. He knows how to kick it to minimize the spin of the ball in flight which causes an eratic, unpredictable, motion in the ball. It's impossible to predict how it will "move", even to him. A knuckleball never does the same thing each time one is kicked. He has a wide space between the goal posts to let the ball do it's thing which is why he's still employed. The only reason I can see for him to practice knuckleballs is that it gives him more distance and he feels he can keep the eratic movement of the ball mostly between the goalposts.

My brother and I were seated right between the goalposts in the upper deck for Sundays game and his first FG went right at the right goalpost and at the last second turned slightly in. It might have been our perspective, but it seemed pretty close. Also, before the game he had practice holders, like he uses on the sidelines when he is warming up, on each hash mark at the 40 yard line and he was drilling them with plenty to spare.

For the first time since Bidwell left the club, I found myself holding my breath when I watched Der Bingle kick a FG. The angle, the wobble, the loft - All of it makes it look like the football isn't going anywhere near the uprights. But he does it, every single time. And his punts/kick-offs have really gotten good (the beginning of the season they seemed a little tentative). You can tell he's hit his stride. He should have made ProBowl, no question.

quote:

Originally posted by GBP1:
Exactly! I commented to my Dad on Sunday, that I aint never seen a kicker who kicks so many knuckle-balls. There was one a week or two ago that was wobbling to the left and then all of a sudden jerked back to the right and over the cross-bar it flew. Wonder what causes that type of ball action?

Kicking with his toes instead of laces? Thats what it almost seems like.

Its all in the hold, the kicker does not change, its why Longwell has such a fit about his holders.

IMO, In order to get the screwball effect he is getting, he is having the holder slant the ball towards the holder and back ... Crosby is then getting a sideways frisbee effect on the ball, which in turn would make it come back to his right. But he doesn't do it everytime so my guess is he is playing the wind one way or the other by telling his holder to slant the ball a certain way based off the wind because he seems to be controlling the action on the ball rather well.

And again, I'm not an expert BUT I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night!

It's not from how it's held - it's a result of how hard he's swinging at the ball. Think about your golf swing. When you take a nice, clean smooth cut, the ball generally flies straight. When you try to hammer it as hard as you can, it sprays. Crosby's young and is still trying to kick the stuffing out of the ball. He's talented enough to make it work for him because he still manages to contact the ball in the sweet spot, but as he gets older hopefully he'll learn to ease off just a bit, as when that happens the ball will go even further and straighter.

I don't care if it's a screwball, slider, fastball, changeup, curve, slurve, whatever.

I don't care if the holder tips it back, tips it forward, tips it sideways, holds it with his foot, or stands on his head.


I don't care if it clanks off the upright or hits the crossbar and falls over as long as the *&#* ball goes through the uprights.

quote:

It's not from how it's held - it's a result of how hard he's swinging at the ball. Think about your golf swing. When you take a nice, clean smooth cut, the ball generally flies straight. When you try to hammer it as hard as you can, it sprays. Crosby's young and is still trying to kick the stuffing out of the ball. He's talented enough to make it work for him because he still manages to contact the ball in the sweet spot, but as he gets older hopefully he'll learn to ease off just a bit, as when that happens the ball will go even further and straighter.

- Wanna bet?

If he hit it in the sweet spot, a football would do what it suppose to do end over end ... its all in the hold and the tilt.

quote:

I don't care if it's a screwball, slider, fastball, changeup, curve, slurve, whatever.

I don't care if the holder tips it back, tips it forward, tips it sideways, holds it with his foot, or stands on his head.


I don't care if it clanks off the upright or hits the crossbar and falls over as long as the *&#* ball goes through the uprights.

- Nice breakdown.

It's not "all" in the hold and tilt, because he has to hit squarely no matter what the hold and tilt is. If you kick the crap out of it, and you hit it squarely, it's gonna knuckle.

quote:

IMO, In order to get the screwball effect he is getting, he is having the holder slant the ball towards the holder and back ... Crosby is then getting a sideways frisbee effect on the ball, which in turn would make it come back to his right. But he doesn't do it everytime so my guess is he is playing the wind one way or the other by telling his holder to slant the ball a certain way based off the wind because he seems to be controlling the action on the ball rather well.

- There is 1 flaw in my theory though ... there was NO wind in St.Louis last Sunday!
(Is it insanity if you laugh at yourself)

quote:

It's not "all" in the hold and tilt, because he has to hit squarely no matter what the hold and tilt is. If you kick the crap out of it, and you hit it squarely, it's gonna knuckle.

- Not true. (I'm going to go with my instincts on this one and a little experience) If you kick the crap out of the ball and it knuckles it does NOT mean you hit it squarely as a kicker, it means you hit it too high on the ball.

Once again, I did have a good night sleep at the Holiday Inn Express ...

Jesus. I was a soccer player for 25 years and messed around kicking footballs a good deal---I have no idea what sort of physics you guys are talking about.

quote:

Jesus. I was a soccer player for 25 years and messed around kicking footballs a good deal---I have no idea what sort of physics you guys are talking about.

- you can stop right at the soccer part ...

or let us in on the secret?