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When it came to fan voting, Ravens punter Sam Koch was at the top of the list from all the fans that voted. How could he not be? Through 15 games, he led the league in net punting average, the most important stat when it comes to the position.
But Koch was left out, with Kevin Huber and Pat McAfee getting the Pro Bowl nods. To compare, Koch had better numbers than both in net average and total average, with Huber only beating Koch by nine yards in return yards allowed. McAfee was over 40 yards more than them.
Regardless, Koch was left out and it seemed to disappoint special teams coordinator Jerry Rosburg quite a bit. Speaking to reporters this week, Rosburg lashed out at the system in place that passed up on Koch for the Pro Bowl.
"The fans prove to be more informed than the experts in this particular regard, in my opinion," Rosburg said. "Sam has his team as the No. 1 net punt and No. 1 gross punt team in the league if you're looking just at numbers — which I'm assuming people did — and that's hard to do. It's hard to do both. And other numbers that jump out at you — he's one of the lowest numbers in percentage of returned balls, one of the lowest numbers in percentage of yards returned, one of the highest percentage of inside the 20 punts in the league.
Rosburg also commented on the other things Koch did, holding for three different long snappers (four if you include Haloti Ngata stepping in for Morgan Cox when he tore his ACL), and the fact he's using different techniques on various punts, depending on the situation.
"The other thing that I think is largely unnoticed, but to very few, is he's changing the game right now," Rosburg said. "The things that he's doing - because he's so skilled — nobody else is doing them, and it's changing the way football is played. There are not too many guys that will have that legacy, and Sam Koch will be one of those guys, because others are going to look at him and say, ‘That's the guy that started this style of football.'"
Koch has the best case of any Ravens player to say he was snubbed. Obviously Rosburg is going to stick up for his player but it should be quite clear to anyone. No disrespect to Huber or McAfee but Koch should have gotten one of those two Pro Bowl spots.