GREEN BAY, Wis. -- This won't help Shawn Slocum's cause: The Green Bay Packers were ranked last in the Dallas Morning News' annual special teams rankings.
Slocum, the Packers special teams coordinator, has come under fire after his unit had two key miscues in Sunday's NFC Championship Game loss at the Seattle Seahawks. They allowed the Seahawks to execute a fake field goal for a touchdown -- a play they said they had targeted because they noticed linebacker Brad Jones always rushed inside from the edge position -- and then botched an onside kick recovery that might have sealed the game had they secured it.
In the Dallas Morning News' rankings, long-time NFL reporter Rick Gosselin ranked all 32 teams in 22 special teams categories. The Packers were dead last in two of those categories -- punts inside the 20 (14) and blocked kicks (seven).
Take note, the rankings were based on the regular season only, so the Packers already were the worst before Sunday's debacle.
This marks the third time in Slocum’s six seasons in charge of the Packers' special teams that they ranked in the bottom third of the rankings, which the Dallas Morning News has done since 1990, but the first time since 2010. They ranked 19th last season, 12th in 2012 and 13th in 2011. Those were major improvements from their rankings of 31st in 2009 and 29th in 2010.
Packers coach Mike McCarthy has not said whether he will make any changes to his coaching staff this offseason. Last offseason, he added veteran coach Ron Zook as a special teams assistant to replace Chad Morton, who was fired. McCarthy also dedicated a third coach to special teams, when he re-assigned assistant Jason Simmons to help Slocum and Zook.
