I believe and have repeatedly stated that teams should kick the ball out of the endzone on kickoffs and punt a little higher and shorter forcing a fair catch or punt out of bounds, so you don’t risk a big-play return. On kickoffs, when you kick short and hope to pin the team deep, you are basically gambling on gaining about 7 yards of field position vs. the risk of giving up a big play.
Last week, punting to the bears and the resulting long return played a part in the loss. Today, the Packers gave up a kickoff return for a TD for the Jets, and another long punt return which was called back by a penalty. With a little more than a minute to play in the 4th quarter and the Packers having just scored a TD and 2-point conversion to go up by 3, the Packers kicked the ball short to try to pin the Jets deep instead of kicking the ball out of the endzone without a lot of time left. The resulting 51-yard return gave the Jets great field position and a chance to score the winning TD, though they eventually kicked a FG and the Packers won in overtime.
In addition, the Packers kicked a FG with 2 seconds left in the half, and instead of kicking the ball out of bounds and not risking a big-play return, they kicked the ball short, though did tackle the returner.