Jones brings reminders of returns past
December 2nd, 2008 - 8:02am -
Charlotte Observer
Thus did the streak end. A Carolina return man has not made the Pro Bowl since. Most seasons, Carolina return men would not be allowed into Hawaii.
You know those invisible electric fences dog owners put up to discourage their animals from leaving the yard? It's as if the Panthers installed one at the 24-yard line.
Return men Randy Baldwin, Jamall Broussard, Isaac Byrd, Nick Goings, Richard Marshall, Jamal Robertson, Ryne Robinson, Rod Smart, Dwight Stone and DeAngelo Williams refused to stray.
Bates and Smith are the only Panthers who have returned 10 or more kicks an average of more than 24 yards. (Bates did it five times, Smith twice.)
So let us now praise Mark Jones, who was phenomenal in Carolina's victory against Green Bay Sunday and averages 26 yards a return.
True, in the time it took you to read the previous seven paragraphs Jones would have advanced the ball from the goal to the 15. He isn't fast like Bates and Smith and he might not be fast like Travelle Wharton, who charged down field like a 312-pound Usain Bolt to recover Jonathan Stewart's fumble at the Green Bay 2.
But Jones, who is 28 and played at Tennessee, is patient. While the players around him fly down the field as if unleashed, Jones calmly finds room to move. He returned three kicks more than 40 yards – 42, 50 and 45 – against Green Bay and averaged 38.8 on four returns.
Green Bay's Will Blackman averaged 21 yards on his four returns. So four times Jones staked the Panthers to a 17-yard edge.
Field position is the most underrated statistic in football, in part because it has no value in fantasy leagues. The shorter the trip, the easier it is to get there, as anybody who has crammed the kids in the car for a trip to the beach will attest.
Jones has yet to take a kick to the end zone. But twice Sunday he beat 10 defenders. On two occasions only one man separated him from end zone glory. That is impressive.
Not impressive: That man was Green Bay kicker Mason Crosby, who twice ran Jones out of bounds.
A question, Panthers coach John Fox. Do you realize that Jones was twice stopped from scoring by the kicker?
“He helped,” Fox said Monday of Jones. “It just takes him a little longer.”
It didn't take him too much longer.
With 1 minute, 57 seconds remaining Sunday, Jones took Crosby's final kick 45 yards.
Twenty four seconds later, DeAngelo Williams, who averaged 18.8 as a return man before figuring out a way to be useful, scored the touchdown that won the game.
(By Tom Sorensen, tsorensen@charlotteobserver.com) Michael Bates is the best kickoff return man the Carolina Panthers have ever had. A world-class sprinter, Bates never waited for an opening. His style was: Why wait? You won't catch me anyway.
Thus did the streak end. A Carolina return man has not made the Pro Bowl since. Most seasons, Carolina return men would not be allowed into Hawaii.
You know those invisible electric fences dog owners put up to discourage their animals from leaving the yard? It's as if the Panthers installed one at the 24-yard line.
Return men Randy Baldwin, Jamall Broussard, Isaac Byrd, Nick Goings, Richard Marshall, Jamal Robertson, Ryne Robinson, Rod Smart, Dwight Stone and DeAngelo Williams refused to stray.
Bates and Smith are the only Panthers who have returned 10 or more kicks an average of more than 24 yards. (Bates did it five times, Smith twice.)
So let us now praise Mark Jones, who was phenomenal in Carolina's victory against Green Bay Sunday and averages 26 yards a return.
True, in the time it took you to read the previous seven paragraphs Jones would have advanced the ball from the goal to the 15. He isn't fast like Bates and Smith and he might not be fast like Travelle Wharton, who charged down field like a 312-pound Usain Bolt to recover Jonathan Stewart's fumble at the Green Bay 2.
But Jones, who is 28 and played at Tennessee, is patient. While the players around him fly down the field as if unleashed, Jones calmly finds room to move. He returned three kicks more than 40 yards – 42, 50 and 45 – against Green Bay and averaged 38.8 on four returns.
Green Bay's Will Blackman averaged 21 yards on his four returns. So four times Jones staked the Panthers to a 17-yard edge.
Field position is the most underrated statistic in football, in part because it has no value in fantasy leagues. The shorter the trip, the easier it is to get there, as anybody who has crammed the kids in the car for a trip to the beach will attest.
Jones has yet to take a kick to the end zone. But twice Sunday he beat 10 defenders. On two occasions only one man separated him from end zone glory. That is impressive.
Not impressive: That man was Green Bay kicker Mason Crosby, who twice ran Jones out of bounds.
A question, Panthers coach John Fox. Do you realize that Jones was twice stopped from scoring by the kicker?
“He helped,” Fox said Monday of Jones. “It just takes him a little longer.”
It didn't take him too much longer.
With 1 minute, 57 seconds remaining Sunday, Jones took Crosby's final kick 45 yards.
Twenty four seconds later, DeAngelo Williams, who averaged 18.8 as a return man before figuring out a way to be useful, scored the touchdown that won the game.
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