Special Teams Coverage Review (2008 Third Quarter)

Continuing on with my series of periodic looks at the most active members of Miami's special teams coverage units, I have assembled this table compiling special teams tackles and forced fumbles:

	Tkl	Ast	Comb	FF
Jason Allen	11	2	13
Charlie Anderson	8	1	9
Akin Ayodele		1	1
Davone Bess	1		1
Courtney Bryan	2		2
Dan Carpenter	2		2
Patrick Cobbs	11	2	13
Brannon Condren	2	1	3
Casey Cramer	4	2	6
Chris Crocker	1		1
Tyrone Culver	3	5	8
John Denney	2	1	3
Boomer Grigsby	1		1
Renaldo Hill	2		2
Nathan Jones	6	2	8
Michael Lehan	2	1	3
Brandon London	3	1	4
David Martin	3	1	4	1
Quentin Moses	1		1
Lousaka Polite	1		1
Joey Thomas	1		1
Reggie Torbor	7	3	10
Erik Walden	2		2

As I wrote after the season's first quarter, here is what I think you can get out of this information and why I wanted to compile it:

I wanted to do this because special teams stats are generally under-discussed and not kept track of all that thoroughly. And yet, several players carve out their spots on this team precisely because of what they bring to these units.

This year, I thought I'd update you all on how the coverage units are playing out after each quarter of the season. Obviously, stats like these don't always tell you who exactly has been the most effective stoppers on special teams, but they do show who has been the most active and who is in position to make the most stops.

I've also included the forced fumbles category because that is an identifiable skill that can be the turning point in any given game. I don't include fumble recoveries because those are random and statistically insignificant.

Patrick Cobbs, in particular, has really turned it on in coverage over these past four games, catching up with Jason Allen as the most active tackler on special teams. Reggie Torbor is the only other player with double-digit tackles, although Erik Walden would have a dozen tackles if I was counting the stops he made while with the Chiefs. So far, he has proven to be a wise addition to this team.