KICKING IT UP A NOTCH
Pats special teams tackle job proudly
FOXBORO — The attitude adjustment starts early, long before any actual games.
Sure, a player may want to contribute on offense or defense, but if he’s deployed almost exclusively on special teams, pouting about a different path to the field won’t get him anywhere with the Patriots — whose emphasis on that phase of the game has been rewarded by seeing two of their own, punter Ryan Allen and kicker Stephen Gostkowski, win the weekly AFC special teams honors through the first three weeks.
“You kind of get through that part in camp,” said Brandon Bolden, who is listed as a running back but has spent most of his five years in Foxboro as a core special teamer.
“That’s what camp is for, get the young guys acclimated on what’s expected from them. And I can say back as far as camp started, as a group, we told them, ‘Hey, this is a unit. They depend on us and they’re going to need us.’ ”
That mindset sets the tone for the whole unit.
“I think that’s a big part of it,” five-time Pro Bowler and special teams captain Matthew Slater said. “That doesn’t mean for young guys that you lose your desire to compete, whether it’s offensively or defensively. But you have to take your ego out of it and just realize you’ve got to do what’s best for the football team and that’s your way you can help your football team win. I think we have guys that truly believe that and have bought into that.”
Sometimes it’s easier than others to buy in. Last week’s game against the Texans serves as one example.
Twice the kickoff unit forced and recovered fumbles. Both turnovers led to touchdowns. In the first quarter, Bolden forced one that was recovered by Duron Harmon. Following a false start, quarterback Jacoby Brissett rumbled into the end zone on a designed 27-yard run.
Nate Ebner, another special teams mainstay, forced a third-quarter fumble, recovered by Jordan Richards at the Houston 21, setting up a 1-yard LeGarrette Blount score.
While it’s nice to create field position advantages, hold opposing teams to short returns or ensure that a field goal splits the uprights, it helps the confidence a little more to know that your play directly leads to 14 points.
“It just gives guys confirmation that when they do their job and work hard all week and prepare and come out and execute on game day, good things can happen for us,” Ebner said. “It doesn’t happen every week, but when it does and we worked hard to get there, it shows that that hard work put us in a good place to make those plays and those plays can change a game. I think it gets guys excited about their role, whatever it may be, that you can have that kind of an effect on a game.”
That type of effect, according to Bolden, is contagious, and it can sprout from anywhere. One unit creates an emotional boost for the next, and the momentum builds from there.
“It gives everybody just the want to, and I think that’s why we do so well: We feed off each other so much,” Bolden said. “We see
‘You have to take your ego out of it and just realize you’ve got to do what’s best for the football team and that’s your way you can help your football team win.’
— PATRIOTS CAPTAIN MATTHEW SLATER On the mindset of special teams players
one unit doing well, well, we don’t want to be the one unit that’s not producing anything. So we just go out there and try to do as well or try to do a little better.”
And when one group plays well, coach Bill Belichick tends to dole out his compliments to the whole, rather than the individual. He rarely singles players out in press conferences unless asked specifically, and even sometimes then he moves the conversation to a more general point.
But in just one answer referencing the Texans game, Belichick mentioned nine players: Slater, Ebner, Bolden, Harmon, Brandon King, Jonathan Jones, Jonathan Freeny, Justin Coleman and Clay Harbor.
In other words, maybe some fans or foes pay a little less attention to special teams, but that’s not the case in Foxboro.
“I try not to read and watch too much stuff, but that’s always a good thing, when the head coach feels like you’re doing your job,” Slater said. “That’s always a plus. But we just have to keep our heads down, keep working hard and realize that you’ve just got to take this thing one game at a time.”
According to Bolden, that message delivered in camp, “the young guys took to that well.”
“We definitely do take pride in all three phases of the game here,” Jones, a rookie cornerback, said, “and you can definitely see it.”
And if you watched the Texans game, it was impossible to miss.