During the Detroit Lions’ Week 6 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, wide receiver Kalif Raymond seemingly violated one of the well-worn edicts of football. He fielded not one but two Buccaneers punts inside his own 5-yard line.
Neither return went well for Raymond. The first attempt, leading into Detroit’s first offensive possession, ended at the Detroit 10-yard line. The second saw Raymond sneak out to the 15, avoiding two tackles on the way.
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Fielding a punt inside the 10 is normally a football taboo. And the poor outcomes for Raymond in Tampa Bay demonstrate why it’s rarely done outside of emergency situations.
Yet Lions special teams coach Dave Fipp didn’t have a problem with Raymond’s decisions. “No problems with any of it,” Fipp said on Thursday.
In an entertaining but meandering press conference Q&A session that also discussed country music, fly fishing, military graduation ceremonies and dreaming of 1980s movies, Fipp did address a question about Raymond’s risky business in fielding punts inside the 10-yard line.
“There’s a risk to it, there’s a reward to it. You’re balancing out both those things,” Fipp said. “You obviously don’t want to put your team in a negative position. We do have a lot of confidence in (Raymond) Leaf back there. I think when you have a good player back there and a guy who’s confident in himself and believes he can make something happen, you don’t want to take that away from him too much either, so there’s a fine line. But I believe in everything he did back there. I’ve got no problems with any of it.”
Raymond is averaging 9.6 yards per punt return for this season after averaging 13.2 a year ago. He did have a long return of 15 yards against the Buccaneers.