Mike Scifres - Best Punter EVER in the NFL

[Yubaking]

Jesus seriously...

Please stop taking shit so literal. Clearly Scifres didn't win the game alone.

Sorry, but Steve's statement has to be one of the weakest ever in light of what Sproles did in that game. Maybe if Steve does not mean what he says, he should try saying something different.

[Yubaking]

your understanding of football is infantile at best. Field position for both offense and defense is everything. Why are turnovers huge? Because they deny the other team that chance to use their kicking game and get field position. Where you or the other team starts is the biggest deciding factor in terms of scoring. And I guess Tony Dungy and Norv, and most of the Chargers players who were talking about Scifres dominant performance were just spouting off?

Lechler stats are only better than Scifres because he kicks the length of the field and can just unload the ball. Scifres is always kicking the ball short to down the ball for FIELD POSITION.

I see. So you and a handful of Chargers fans with homer goggles locked in place are the only ones "in the know" and those that decide who is an All-Pro (as well as the rest of America) are clueless when they named Lechler All-Pro 9 times and voted Lechler to the Pro Bowl 7 times while Scifres has not been named to anything. Everyone got it wrong every year for a decade or so. That's your position. Arrogance much?

You do understand that the Raiders were a playoff team in 2000 and 2001, seasons in which Lechler was named an All-Pro, right?! They didn't suck at all during those seasons.

Look, I have zero problem with the proposition that Scifres has been a very good punter for us. It just has been his bad luck to punt in an era when there was a slightly better punter in the league in Lechler.

[Yubaking]

I can't believe Yuba actually typed those words. Either he's, as you say, infantile or he's spouting off just to be contradictory out of spite. CONTEXT Yuba, CONTEXT. Either way he's coming across as foolish. Lechler benefits from inflated numbers because his team was so bad. All he had to do was air it out every single time. Where's the talent in that? Scifres punts are precision strikes that pin the opposing team back. The man has an uncanny talent for making a football (of all things!) fall dead to the ground instead of bouncing through the endzone. Scifres is a precision weapon plain and simple.

Mako, you and some of the others need to understand just how out of touch you are with football reality as evidenced through the perceptions of others. Lechler is a 7 time Pro Bowl punter who has been named All-Pro nine times. Scifres has been named/voted to nothing. I could see reasonable disputes being raised as to one or more individual seasons, but not 7 and 9 seasons.

The numbers do not support your argument for Scifres and neither does the opinion of unbiased (in this discussion) football followers.

Scifres has been a very good punter for us, but Lechler has been better. You guys lose credibility when you stretch to make the arguments being made in this thread on behalf of Scifres. In this instance, you are out of touch with reality.

[Yubaking]

Scifres practically won the Indy playoff game single footedly.

This is just untrue. Scifres had one of the greatest games by a punter ever. The result of that was that Manning had to get about one more first down on several drives than would have been the case had we had a lesser punter. That was a contribution to the overall result. Many players made very important plays in that game, though. It was a great team win. If I were to give out honors for the game, Sproles was the game's MVP with Scifres being runner up. Ron Rivera deserves a lot of credit for deliberately having his players get into formation late. It was a great strategy. Rivers and Dobbins deserve credit for late clutch play.

[Panama]

Sorry, but Steve's statement has to be one of the weakest ever in light of what Sproles did in that game. Maybe if Steve does not mean what he says, he should try saying something different.

If Scifres doesn't do what he does (pin Indy deep in its own end), Sproles doesn't get a chance to do what he does (return punts, because Indy would be scoring more and punting less).

[MakoShark]

You're one to be throwing around the word 'arrogance'. Pro Bowls? That's a great argument. In an era where every team is represented the best player on the Duh's was the punter so he gets the nod. You and the 'unbiased football followers' are too narrow minded and too easily impressed with the glory numbers like overall yards and average. That's weak and simplistic. Scifres more than deserved All Pro nods after several seasons, and to not admit that is ignorant and asinine. Lechler padded his stats in the over a decade of irrelevance the Duh's have endured. He continued that trend last year in Texas. He has had 473 more punt attempts than Scifres and its all those extra attempts that allowed him to inflate his glory numbers for the simple minded football observers. You like numbers, but don't make the effort to understand what they are trying to tell you. You just take them at face value and claim superiority.

Lechler's 14 year career vs Scifres 10 years go like this:

Lechler has only managed 32% of his punts inside the 20 and only 11% inside the 10.
Scifres has put 41% inside the 20 and 14% inside the 10.

15% of Lechler's punts are 'Fair Catches'
26% of Scifres punts are 'Fair Catches'

14% of Lechler's punts go through the endzone for touch backs
Only 8% of Scifres punts are touch backs

[Panama]

I see. So you and a handful of Chargers fans with homer goggles locked in place are the only ones "in the know" and those that decide who is an All-Pro (as well as the rest of America) are clueless when they named Lechler All-Pro 9 times and voted Lechler to the Pro Bowl 7 times while Scifres has not been named to anything. Everyone got it wrong every year for a decade or so. That's your position.

Yep, pretty much. All-Pro and Pro Bowl voting is pretty much a joke every season.

I'd be much more interested in a former coaches all-pro list. You know, people who actually know about these things (as opposed to your average fan or media type) but are no longer so busy coaching they could spare some time to do this.

[Panama]

Mako, you and some of the others need to understand just how out of touch you are with football reality as evidenced through the perceptions of others. Lechler is a 7 time Pro Bowl punter who has been named All-Pro nine times. Scifres has been named/voted to nothing. I could see reasonable disputes being raised as to one or more individual seasons, but not 7 and 9 seasons.

The numbers do not support your argument for Scifres and neither does the opinion of unbiased (in this discussion) football followers.

Scifres has been a very good punter for us, but Lechler has been better. You guys lose credibility when you stretch to make the arguments being made in this thread on behalf of Scifres. In this instance, you are out of touch with reality.

Yuba, you need to understand just how out of touch you are with football reality as evidenced through the complete lack of knowledge about the game outside of being able to quote (and misuse) stats and numbers.

[Stinky Wizzleteats+]

You might reach 10 pages.

Only because of Steve, Yuba and all the circus clowns that respond to Yuba over and over again

See on the last page.

[Savage Lizard]

Mako, you and some of the others need to understand just how out of touch you are with football reality as evidenced through the perceptions of others. Lechler is a 7 time Pro Bowl punter who has been named All-Pro nine times. Scifres has been named/voted to nothing. I could see reasonable disputes being raised as to one or more individual seasons, but not 7 and 9 seasons.

Voting for the punter position probably goes like this: "shit, I have no idea what makes a punter good, and I don't really pay any attention to them anyway. Lechler won before so I'll just pick him again."

[TTK]

You're one to be throwing around the word 'arrogance'. Pro Bowls? That's a great argument. In an era where every team is represented the best player on the Duh's was the punter so he gets the nod. You and the 'unbiased football followers' are too narrow minded and too easily impressed with the glory numbers like overall yards and average. That's weak and simplistic. Scifres more than deserved All Pro nods after several seasons, and to not admit that is ignorant and asinine. Lechler padded his stats in the over a decade of irrelevance the Duh's have endured. He continued that trend last year in Texas. He has had 473 more punt attempts than Scifres and its all those extra attempts that allowed him to inflate his glory numbers for the simple minded football observers. You like numbers, but don't make the effort to understand what they are trying to tell you. You just take them at face value and claim superiority.

Lechler's 14 year career vs Scifres 10 years go like this:

Lechler has only managed 32% of his punts inside the 20 and only 11% inside the 10.
Scifres has put 41% inside the 20 and 14% inside the 10.

15% of Lechler's punts are 'Fair Catches'
26% of Scifres punts are 'Fair Catches'

14% of Lechler's punts go through the endzone for touch backs
Only 8% of Scifres punts are touch backs

Scifres' stas blow Lechler's away it's not even funny.

Yuba can boast about all of Lechler's Pro-Bowls and All-Pro selections but the stats don't back up Lechler at all.

Lechler gets talked about all the time because he's stood out on a crap team for a decade and punts twice as much as Scifres gets to.

[KNSD]

Scifres percentages inside the 10/20 are ridiculous. Lack of touchbacks is amazing. Best punter ever.