It's often been said that kickers on a pro football team aren't sometimes noticed until they screw up. A missed field goal, extra point, bad kickoff, something that helps the other team are things that everyone notices.

However, punters have it just as tough in some situations. That's why the consistency of Sam Koch again this year has been a help to the Ravens during a season when the offense and defense both stumbled at times.

Koch's been consistent in a few ways. First, he doesn't drop the ball or get kicks blocked. Second, he can unload booming kicks or skillfully place punts deep in opposing territory. Koch is good at pooch punting and placing something out of bounds both away from a tough return man and in a spot that can bury the opposing offense.

In addition, nowadays in the NFL, most punters are place-holders. Koch's been good at that also. Nobody's perfect at these jobs -- or any -- on the football field, but Koch's given the Ravens all they could ask for, and more.

But Koch quietly goes about his work. There's not a whole lot of notice surrounding him, and the guess here is that's fine for the veteran punter.

His numbers are mostly in the middle of the NFL's punters this season. Koch's averaging 47.2 yards per punt, and that ranks him 13th in the league. In addition, Koch is tied for 11th with 11 punts that have gone inside the opponents' 20-yard line, about 1 1/2 per game, a pretty good number.

A punter's main job is kind of a thankless one. Get the ball out of your own end of the field or send it deep to the other end to help your defense put some pressure on. Not a whole lot of glory. You just have to do the job. So far, like he's done his whole career, Koch's done just that.