The New England Patriots blocked a field goal during their game against the Miami Dolphins on Sunday night, and the way they executed the play will likely force opponents to make a significant change going forward.
The Patriots were down 17-3 late in the third quarter when Brenden Schooler got them back into the game with an electric special teams play. Schooler timed his run perfectly and sprinted along the line of scrimmage before blocking Jason Sanders’ kick.
NBC analyst Cris Collinsworth said on the broadcast that he expects every team to steal that play from the Patriots because “that running start made it easy” for Schooler to get into the backfield and block the kick. However, former Patriots linebacker and current analyst Matt Chatham explained that there was a lot more to it than that.
Chatham noted on Twitter that Schooler was clearly looking at Sanders — not the ball — when he began his run. That is because Schooler was timing the kicker’s sequence rather than the snap. Schooler seemed to know when the ball would be snapped based on Sanders’ routine.
“He’s not even looking at the long snapper. He knows the amount of time from kick sequence steps to snap to kick,” Chatham wrote. “You’d have to KNOW that was going to be the case from film study — repeatedly spot on timing — or you’d risk running into the line or jumping offsides. This was an amazing block made possible by film study. Now every ST operation they face will need to change up kick sequence timing play to play or risk have this happening to them.”
Many kickers have strict routines, and it is possible that the Patriots noticed some sort of “tell” with Sanders. The Dolphins — and other teams — will have to figure out if that is what happened.
Schooler’s play kept the game close, but the Patriots ultimately came up short in a game that featured a wild finish.
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