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Former Michigan holder, punter drops knowledge on Blair Walsh ‘laces in’ fiasco
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Former Michigan punter Zoltan Mesko is a man of many talents. He’s an IBMer, NFL vet, internationally published author, patent holding inventor, actor and quad-lingual speaker.
But he was also a holder.
That position became a focal point of conversation on Sunday when the Minnesota Vikings shanked a potential game-winning field goal in the NFC Wild Card round.
26 seconds to go
27 yards
One kick#SEAvsMIN #BlairWalsh https://t.co/w7pznmk9NW— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) January 10, 2016
Replay showed that it was a “laces in” hold, and that Walsh wasn’t entirely to blame for the botched game-winner.
Mesko took that opportunity to educate the masses on how the kick was impacted by the hold. He made some interesting points:
Just so you guys are aware, putting the laces straight back to the kicker does not affect direction as much as distance. #MINvsSEA
— Zoltan Mesko (@ZoltanMesko) January 10, 2016
It's all about compression and laces toward the kicker is even compression. Laces to either sideline is what affects direction. #MINvsSEA
— Zoltan Mesko (@ZoltanMesko) January 10, 2016
Internally, the problem of the laces is blamed on the snapper. Temp does affect grip and rotation, so some adjustments should've been made.
— Zoltan Mesko (@ZoltanMesko) January 10, 2016
He was asked if the laces affected the direction of the kick in any way.
I think it's more of a factor of the kicker not being affected by the sight of the laces. Got to keep it routine. https://t.co/OIEdfnRoRy
— Zoltan Mesko (@ZoltanMesko) January 10, 2016
The obvious question was how that could possibly be on the snapper when it looked like a perfect snap?
[1 of 2] It's a matter of rotations per the 8 yards the ball has to travel. Snapper and holder have to be in sync… https://t.co/y68h8ocUZ4
— Zoltan Mesko (@ZoltanMesko) January 10, 2016
[2 of 2] …b/c of weather, grip affects RPMs, the snapper has to scoot the ball up OR the holder catches it later https://t.co/y68h8ocUZ4
— Zoltan Mesko (@ZoltanMesko) January 10, 2016
It won’t take the sting away from the loss for Minnesota fans, but it’s a different take then the assumptions Twitter made about who was at fault.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Tradition. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.