If you are wondering why solid, reliable kickers like Mare can come to New Orleans, look like garbage, and then he goes to Seattle and suddenly looks great again, it's called SPECIAL TEAMS COACHING. Same reason Carney and Hartley and ALL of our special teams units, have looked alternately great and alternately terrible ever since McMahon got here. Our special teams coach is a tinkerer -- he tinkers with this, tinkers with that, let's change this, let's fix that, no let's try it this other way instead -- and consistency, reliability or preparation is just not part of his game plan. He tinkers with one thing, and something else breaks. Fixes that, and something else goes wrong. Rolls in on Sunday with his units totally unprepared for that week's game. He is friends with Payton, though.

I actually like Hartley. I think he's a head case, but I think a lot of the kicks that both he and Carney missed, there were LOTS of other things that looked bad about those particular plays, blocking, timing, etc. The whole special teams process on kicks, always looked kinda sloppy, all year, instead of crisp and tight like other teams. And that's coaching.