Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

JuggernautJ wrote: ↑Sun Jul 21, 2024 6:47 am One of my favorite season previews is Dell's Illustrated Digest of Pro Football for 1972 (after the 1971 season) which has an article in it titled "They'll NEVER Beat (Jim) Brown's Records."
We've all seen how well that prediction holds up...

So, who knows what will happen in the future...
Perhaps 50 years from now when the pendulum has swung back to the defenses and there are 64 teams playing 24 game schedules on a 200 yard field such a record might be broken.
But I think it is highly unlikely in today's game. There are just too many advantages for the offenses.

Just out of curiosity, what was the next highest total for punts in a season?
And/or average punts per game.
Was there anyone close to the '84 Raiders?

Bob Gill wrote: ↑Sun Jul 21, 2024 7:31 pm The Sports Encyclopedia: Pro Football, using numbers compiled from play-by-play accounts of each game in the Green Bay Press-Gazette, shows that the Packers' opponents punted 153 times in 1929, 129 in 1931, and 167 in 1932. And they never played more than 14 games in any of those seasons. Take that, Raiders!

SeahawkFever wrote: ↑Mon Jul 22, 2024 2:15 am Very true. Congrats to those 32 Packers then on overseeing 167 opposing punts then; 50 more than the 84 Raiders.

However on this site I have been told that punts in the first 25-30 years of the league’s history were done with a different strategy than more recent generations.

Bob Gill wrote: ↑Mon Jul 22, 2024 7:20 am

SeahawkFever wrote: ↑Mon Jul 22, 2024 2:15 am Very true. Congrats to those 32 Packers then on overseeing 167 opposing punts then; 50 more than the 84 Raiders.

However on this site I have been told that punts in the first 25-30 years of the league’s history were done with a different strategy than more recent generations.

Also true. For example, in 1932 the Packers, a team that went 10-3-1, punted 166 times themselves, just one less than their opponents. I think it's safe to say that wouldn't happen today.

SeahawkFever wrote: ↑Mon Jul 22, 2024 2:32 pm Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t punting in the 1930’s used very differently than it is now?

Bob Gill wrote: ↑Mon Jul 22, 2024 2:45 pm

SeahawkFever wrote: ↑Mon Jul 22, 2024 2:32 pm Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t punting in the 1930’s used very differently than it is now?

Oh, yeah. It was often used as an offensive weapon, because in those days field position could be more important than possession of the ball. The football itself was bigger and harder to handle, so fumbles were more common, and passes were intercepted two or three or five times more frequently than they are today. The rules were much tougher on the offensive team, too, so if you had the ball on your own 30 you didn't have a great chance of moving all the way down the field for a touchdown.

But if you punted and the other team took over on its own 30, you might recover a fumble or intercept a pass and find yourself only one or two first downs away from the end zone. That's why teams often punted on first or second down when they got the ball relatively deep in their own territory. Even the good teams did that at times, and the bad teams did it a lot, especially when they were facing the toughest opponents.