HOUSTON (SportsRadio 610)- Up 13 early in the third quarter the Texans had the ball on fourth and three and their own 36-yard line. Cameron Johnston was lined up to punt but then sprinted towards the line of scrimmage. He then darted back, took the snap from Jon Weeks and attempted to punt the ball away, only it hit off one of his blockers, Terrence Brooks, and rolled towards the Patriots sideline where it went out of bounds at the Texans 36-yard line. The Patriots only managed three points out of the gift, but they believed it changed the game.
“That’s what turned it around,” Patriots linebacker Matt Judon said.
Punter returner Gunner Olszewski came sprinting up from where he was positioned to defend against a possible play, but the other 10 players on the field for New England remained composed before the snap.
“It looked like they're in some kind of a gadget punt formation and try to get us to check into a safe look and prepare for the fake,” Patriots head coach Bill Belichick said. “That strategy, it takes you out of return, so if you think they're gonna fake it and you just kind of stand there and wait for him to run a fake and then they don't then you just don't get any return setup.”
Some coaches will burn a timeout in that scenario, but Belichick chose to let the play continue because of the personnel he had on the field.
“We had some big guys in there so that they did fake it we felt like we were covered, but at the same time we felt like we could pressure as well.”
Lawrence Guy was responsible for driving Brooks backwards and disrupting the path of Johnston’s boot. Judon sacked Davis Mills inside the 10-yard line twice in the same series in the second quarter to keep the Texans from getting into the end zone, but he says Guy’s play was more impactful.
“It wasn't me,” Judon said. I wish it was, but it was definitely LG, and congrats to that guy.”