Welcome back to what is turning into a regular weekend series of inspecting the Bucs’ special teams unit from the previous week. In a game mostly lacking for offense, the special teams unit once again had an opportunity to show out in Week 3 against the Packers. And after two weeks of overall solid play on the road, the home opener saw this unit once again prove to be solid, if unspectacular.

Field Goal Unit

Kicker Ryan Succop hit both of his field goal attempts, along with his lone point after try. Neither of Succop’s 45-yard field goals was ever in doubt, and both had plenty of leg for the distance. Succop is now 8-of-9 on field goals this year and perfect since the second half of the season opener in Dallas.

Kickoff Coverage Unit

The Bucs’ kickoff coverage unit had no high or low-lights for the day. Each of Jake Camarda’s kickoffs wound up bouncing out of the endzone. Late in the fourth quarter, the Bucs were forced to attempt an onside kick. Camarda had a solid effort, forcing the ball to bounce high in the air to try and give teammates an opportunity to recover the ball, but Antoine Winfield Jr. got blocked into overrunning the kick while Mike Edwards was unable to get off of his block. Green Bay was able to recover the ball and seal the Bucs’ fate.

Punt Unit

Camarda logged six punts on the day. His average yards per punt was an impressive 49.5 mark. The rookie had deep open-field punts of 52, 62 and 58 yards at different points in the game. On long punts like that, the danger is in not creating enough hang-time for your gunners to get down to the returner on time.

Bucs P Jake Camarda – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

This leads to big returns that hurt your net average. On those three punts, the Packers were able to get returns of seven and 19 yards, along with a fair catch induced. On the 19-yard return, Green Bay committed a penalty, which brought the ball back and the overall return was for just four yards. Ultimately on these long punts, Camarda netted an average of 53.7 yards.

Camarda also had a pin-deep opportunity where he dropped a 45-yarder inside the 20 for a fair catch at the Green Bay 14. The Bucs punter’s other two attempts feel like they left meat on the bone. One in particular stands out as a continuation of a theme for Camarda early in the season. That theme is a single punt that just does not go well for him in an otherwise-impressive game.

This one occurred with less than a minute left in the third quarter. Camarda was backed up on his own 20-yard line. This would have been a perfect spot for another long open-field boot of 55+ yards. Instead, the boot ended up being a very short shot of about 40-42 yards. After a bounce that went backward, the coverage unit downed the ball on the Green Bay 44 for just a 36-yard gain of field position.

Camarda has shown all of the tools to be a plus punter in the NFL, save one. Consistency has been lacking, as he has yet to put together a complete game. Thanks to the defense, this less-than-stellar punt that set up the Packers up near midfield did not hurt the Bucs on the day. But one day it will. He has to clean these up.

Kick Return Unit

Rookie kick returner Rachaad White had three opportunities to make returns on the day. He opted to try once, and it was a bad call. Following the Packers’ initial touchdown on the day, White opted to field a bouncing kickoff at his own 2-yard line just inches from his left sideline.

Given the angle it put him in with little-to-no forward momentum and a delay to ensure he fielded the ball correctly, it was bound to be a demurred return no matter what. The opportunity cost for White was fairly high. There was a chance the ball could have bounced out of bounds before reaching the endzone. That would have set the Bucs up at their own 40-yard line. Even if the ball had ricocheted into the endzone, the offense would have begun the ensuing drive at their own 25.

But White did opt for the return and placed himself into a silo along the sideline while trying to get up field. The result had White pushed out of bounds at his own 23, trailing the potential field position outcomes I laid out just a few sentences ago. Why did he make the call that he did? Maybe he conflated the rules of kick returns with that of punt returns? Perhaps White wrongly thought that if the ball had gone out at the two, the Bucs would have had to start deep in their own territory?

If that’s the case, it is a really big gaffe. White isn’t responsible for punt returns. His lone return responsibility is kickoffs. He has to know the rules fully. Ultimately, the result didn’t move the needle in the wrong direction a ton, but it’s little things like this that can lead to big things down the road.

Punt Return Unit

The much-maligned Bucs punt returner Jaelon Darden had yet another solid performance. He fielded all of his opportunities cleanly. Darden attempted to advance the ball three times. On the first, he was pushed out of bounds by Packers’ safety Rudy Ford after he was able to shake free of Sean Murphy-Bunting’s attempt to block him. Packers punter Pat O’Donnell’s booming 52-yard punt was angled near the sideline, and Darden was unable to shake free of Ford.

On both his second and third attempts, Darden was able to return the ball for double-digit gains. His second return was from his own 11 and he was able to cut up-field after moving right-to-left away from the sideline. Darden found a small crease to get the ball to the Tampa Bay 21.

Bucs WR Jaelon Darden – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

On his final attempt of the day, Darden fielded the ball at his own 9-yard line. With a huge open field ahead of him, he quickly moved ahead until he reached his own 23. At this point, with a Packer bearing down on him, Darden opted to cut to his left try and get around the pinch. Dipping around a block by Kaylon Geiger by running backward a bit, he was able to get to the outside and cut back up-field. Darden was eventually run out of bounds at the 25, as he never really committed to a hard cut up the field.

Darden has been far from terrible as a punt returner this season. He now ranks 12th in the league with 8.9 yards per return.  And he is doing what he is supposed to do. He is making good decisions as to whether he should field the ball or not, call for a fair catch or not and getting about what the other team is giving him. He has not been spectacular and has not really made something out of nothing. But on this Bucs team, he shouldn’t need to.

And for those of you who can’t stand him as a returner, I encourage you to ask Kansas City fans how they feel about their punt returner Skyy Moore. Moore arguably cost the Chiefs a win last week with a muffed punt return followed by a terrible decision not to field another on his very next opportunity. Darden has been a steady-eddy. And if you were counting on the punt returner to be the guy this team was counting on to unlock scoring, well, brother/sister, we need to have a talk about roster building.

On the day, the special teams unit was mostly non-descript. No splash plays for. But the two poor plays (Camarda’s short punt and White’s poor decision to make a return) left the unit with a less-than-average grade for the day. Coordinator Keith Armstrong has certainly made positive strides with this group this year versus years past, but they still have yet to put it all together for a full 60 minutes.