PORT ARTHUR — Oh, how special those special teams can be. The third phase of football games can often be overlooked from a schematic standpoint, but they are wildly different and fascinating.



Don’t forget impactful. Just ask the Cowboys how big that Jacoby Jones 108-yard kickoff return was on Sunday. Impact like that can happen on any play, but it takes a solid understanding of the fundamentals behind a certain play.



Heading into Mid-County Madness, I thought we should look at both Port Neches-Groves and Nederland from a special teams perspective to highlight areas where they both might stand out Friday. First up, we’ll look at PN-G’s kick returns this season.



The kickoff and subsequent return is the most dangerous play in football. Guys are hurtling down the field at full speed, trying to stop someone going full speed in the other direction. Which one of Newton’s laws governed the equal and opposite reaction? That happens on every single kickoff, with the reaction being people flying all over the place.



That’s why teams will sometimes pooch kicks or squib them, to avoid having the other team get a full head of steam. But, there’s more to the strategy behind a kickoff than that. Back in the day, kick returns consisted of a “wedge” of players four deep just ahead of the kickoff man, with five or six players in front of them as a first line of blocking.



When the ball is kicked off, that first line drops back 10-15 yards and turns up the field to block the man in their lane high and outside. The second line forms a line that sort of looks like a wedge in front of the returner. Think of the Mighty Ducks “Flying V,” except much, much meaner.



Since teams had developed kickoff players called “wedge busters,” whose sole job was to run down and give up their body to blow up that wedge formation, anything bigger than a two-man blocking tandem has been outlawed in football.



So, that gives teams more to work with schematically. They can have two players deep to return the kick, two on each side of them as personal blockers and then the front line. Whoever catches it has the two-man wedge working as personal lead blockers while he tries to find a crease.



PN-G’s Kaleb Clark excels at this, because of his raw speed. Once Clark gets up to speed, he is very hard to stop, which makes him a natural for kickoff returns, since he gets a 10-15 yard running start before he has to worry about defenders on most kickoffs.



Clark has returned two kickoffs for TDs already this season and had a 90-yard return against West Orange-Stark. He also had a kickoff return for a TD last year against Crosby. His ability to get up to speed and just run past people makes him a great weapon in the third phase of the game for the Indians.



On the Nederland side, what they excel at is a little more unorthodox. The Nederland coaching staff calls it an “offensive punt,” but you may recognize it as a “quick kick.” It’s not exactly a quick kick, like Joe Washington’s 75-yard quick kick against Texas that sealed the Red River Shootout victory for his Sooners in 1975.



The reason it’s not like that is because it comes out of a formation (shotgun) and down (fourth) that could be interpreted as punting situations. The Bulldogs aren’t going for the surprise of a kick when the defense isn’t prepared for it.



They are trying to force them into indecision with the play. On a basic setup, quarterback Carson Raines is maybe a yard or two deeper in his shotgun setup than he usually would be for a passing play. Everything else looks exactly like normal, though, with two or three wideouts and the same offensive line on a normal offensive snap.



At that point, the team would decide how the defense is playing it. If the defense drops a man deep and the corners play off, Raines may just take the snap and throw a quick pass to Michael Shaw for the first down. But, if the defense is tucked in close to the line, playing the offensive formation, Raines can quickly kick the ball over the defense and his receivers turn into gunners as they race to down the ball inside the 20.



Usually, the Bulldogs only use that formation between the 40-yard lines, but it could be effective in any punting situation with a makeable fourth down conversion. It’s the pressure to decide which way to play it that makes it so dangerous.



That indecision can virtually erase the chance of a return, since the Nederland coverage has a big advantage on getting down the field to the ball. Raines has been great on this play, with nice touch to get the ball inside the 10 consistently.



With the Nederland defense being so stout the past two seasons, having a QB able to deliver those kicks in those situations means the Bulldogs can control the game’s field position, putting them in a great situation to start drives.



Neither PN-G’s kick return or Nederland’ s offensive punt are groundbreaking scheme-wise. But, they both provide excellent value to their team and help to control field position in different ways. On Friday night, in a rivalry game that usually goes down to the wire, field position and special teams could take center stage.



If you have questions for this piece each week, please email them to dcoleman@panews.com.