Chiefs get back to the basics on special teams

James Winchester finished his career as Oklahoma’s long snapper after the 2011 season with NFL ambition. He signed with the Eagles as an undrafted free agent and didn’t stick. But Winchester wasn’t deterred.

Working in the oil and gas industry in Oklahoma, Winchester stayed in shape working out at OU and at high schools around the state. Finally, opportunity presented itself and he won the job with the Chiefs out of training camp.

The underdog story was playing well until recently. In the last two games, kicker Cairo Santos missed a field-goal attempt, didn’t get off another attempt and pushed wide an extra-point attempt.

There’s blame to parcel out, but Winchester starts and stops with himself.

“The snap, the hold, the kick, there are a lot of moving parts,” Winchester said. “A lot of times we make it look easy, but it’s very noticeable when something doesn’t go right.

“We’re all accountable, but especially me. It starts with me. It starts with the snap.”

Kicking hasn’t been the lone breakdown. Chiefs punt return specialist Frankie Hammond Jr., has put the ball on the ground in each of the last two games, losing a fumble against the Chargers last week. Chiefs also had a long punt return nullified by a penalty.

Later in the game, Santos missed a 46-yard attempt when the snap was low and off target, and Dustin Colquitt’s hold had the ball at an angle. The miss spoiled a good drive to open the second half and would have given the Chiefs a two-score lead. Instead, they sweated out a 10-3 victory by surviving Philip Rivers’ incomplete pass in the end zone on the game’s final play.

A week earlier at Oakland, the Chiefs caught the Raiders 20-20 in the fourth quarter but failed to take the lead when a snap rode in on Colquitt and the ball slipped through his hands. Santos didn’t attempt the kick. Winchester wore that one as well.

“That was all me,” he said. “It came out low. I didn’t give Dustin a good enough opportunity to get the ball up in those conditions. If I don’t do my job, it relays to the other guys.”

The Chiefs dealt with rain each of the last three weeks. Slippery turf and a wet ball aren’t ideal.

“I hate to put the blame on something, but that’s part of it,” Chiefs special teams coach Dave Toub said. “We have to be able to perform in those conditions.”

For a player like Winchester, whose only duty is long snapping for kicks and punts, one bad one is magnified.

“These guys are professional, they’re the best in the world, the top 32 snappers in the world,” Toub said. “You expect it to be perfect. We had a little glitch there.

“We have three more (regular-season) games left, hopefully we’ll get this cleaned up and on the road to being perfect again.”

The coaches and Winchester emphasize returning to fundamentals and “repping it out,”

“It’s just like any other position, there are basics and fundamentals that you have to get back to,” Winchester said. “You have to take a step back, look at what you did wrong and fix it.

“Me? I get paid to snap strikes. Every time. When you’re not doing that, something’s not right. You have to go back and fix it, and in a season like this it has to be a quick fix.”

For a couple of reasons. The Chiefs visit Baltimore on Sunday, and although the Ravens are 4-9, they haven’t let down on special teams, ranking among the NFL leaders in several categories and stand overall No. 1 in special teams according to footballoutsiders.com.

“We’re going to get tested this week,” Toub said. “They’re a good unit.”

Good enough to win a game on a blocked field goal returned for a touchdown in a walk-off win over the Browns on Nov. 30.

Also because the Chiefs have so much riding on the season. A seven-game winning streak has put the Chiefs, 8-5, squarely in the playoff picture. Every kick — every special-teams play — matters.

“The little things end up meaning a lot,” Toub said.

This story was originally published December 17, 2015 at 6:48 PM with the headline "Chiefs get back to the basics on special teams."