The Seahawks Had An All-Time Fake Punt Disaster When Their Punter Got Tackled On His Own 14

A well-executed fake punt is a beautiful, beautiful thing. A poorly executed fake punt is also a beautiful, beautiful thing, with the main difference being that a poorly executed fake punt is a disaster.

Here is an example of that. The Seattle Seahawks have one of the best punters in the league in Michael Dickson, who is capable of sending a football to the moon when he connects on one. On Sunday afternoon, Dickson went onto the field for a punt on fourth-and-9 from Seattle’s 21 during a road game against the New Orleans Saints.

Instead of booting it, though, Dickson tucked it and looked like he thought about running. The problem was that Carl Granderson of the Saints was right there, so Dickson got leveled and the New Orleans offense got the ball at the Seattle 14.

Now, our hunch is that this was not an explicit fake punt — one thing you’ll see is that punters are coached to read what the other team is doing and make a decision to boot it or tuck it and run. Maybe we’ll hear what happened after the game, but it sure seems like Dickson thought he had a convoy of blockers ahead of him and that he could pick up the first with his legs. Or maybe it was just a brain fart that let the Saints score two plays later.