National Football League

How Patriots pulled off Brenden Schooler’s blocked field goal vs. Dolphins

Updated Sep. 20, 2023 7:57 p.m. ET

Brenden Schooler was ambling his way toward the New England Patriots' sideline, almost like he had made a mistake and was trying to substitute out before the Miami Dolphins attempted a field goal. But then Schooler stopped — and stayed out near his team's sideline.

It was a bizarre place for a player to stand while defending a field goal. He was split wide, like a wide receiver. What good could he do if he was nowhere near Miami placekicker Jason Sanders?

But then, also like a receiver, Schooler went in motion, moving across the formation at a run. Then a sprint. The Dolphins' kicking unit began its process: communicating to one another that they were ready. Miami snapped the football, and Jake Bailey, the holder, placed the ball on the ground for Sanders' attempt.

But Schooler was already in the backfield, having sprinted from the wide part of the field with a full head of steam. He had slipped past the right side of the line almost untouched, with defensive tackle Christian Wilkins serving as a sort of right tackle.

Sanders must have known, even before he kicked the ball, that the attempt would be blocked. Schooler got his hand on the football. And safety Kyle Dugger recovered the block.

"I think I kind of blacked out during the play," Schooler told FOX Sports Wednesday. "You get one shot at that, for sure. You have those emotions where you're like, ‘Wow, that really just happened.’ … My mom sent a video of the block yesterday and said, 'I still can't believe this happened.' And I said, ‘S---, me neither.’"

Schooler made sure to note just how many people and how much planning went into his success: the interior surge rush, the flanking from cornerback Myles Bryant and Dugger, who were both ready to scoop and score. Schooler credited the whole unit. And he kept crediting his coaches.

They had everything plotted out, down to the foot that he pushed off of for his dive They told him where to line up, depending upon whether the kick was from one of the hashes as opposed to the middle of the field. They'd planned the play with tremendous detail.

"It was a really cool schematic adjustment by the Patriots. Hats off to them," Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said after the game. "That was a great design. They kind of used one of the motions that we use on offense all the time, basically, and field-goal block. Hadn't seen that before. So that was a great job by them."

If you think you know who Schooler is — well, you probably don't. But if you're sure you've heard the name, then maybe you remember last year when he tried to give the football to coach Bill Belichick as a present after recovering a muffed punt. Belichick was not amused.

Did Schooler think about presenting the ball to Belichick again?

"No, that thought did not cross my mind," he said, laughing. "I learned my lesson."

Schooler's play forced the Dolphins to adjust their snap count on the next field-goal attempt, which seemed to bother Sanders' rhythm, because he missed that kick, too. Executing the exact same approach, Schooler was screaming off the right side of Miami's formation and applying pressure. Sanders pulled it, likely influenced by Schooler's presence.

"Whether he looked out there and saw me or he just felt my presence," Schooler said, "I think there was a component to that, with him hooking it left and missing that field goal."

Special teams coordinator Cam Achord, assistant head coach Joe Judge and special teams assistant Joe Houston devised the play. Last Wednesday, they asked Schooler to take a look at what they'd drawn up on the board. They had him rep it in practice on the sideline on Thursday. By Friday, they were ready to let it rip in live reps.

"It looked pretty damn good," Schooler said. "So we put it in the game plan."

Of course they did. Belichick started his NFL career coaching special teams, and that unit has always been near and dear to his heart. He will wax poetic about punt protectors, a position he says is "like playing quarterback." He will talk for minutes, uninterrupted, about why a kicker's motion is a lot like a golfer's swing. Belichick is known as terse and testy in press conferences. But not when he's talking about special teams. He'll go on and on.

"It was timed up well," Belichick said of Schooler's block during a conference call on Monday. "He did a good job of timing the play, turning the corner there on Wilkins and laying out for it. It was a well-executed and well-timed-out play. It was a big play for us, changed the field position, turned the momentum around. Unfortunately, we weren't able to capitalize on it, but it was still a really good play on Schooler's part and well-designed by the special teams coaches."

That's fairly tame for Belichick, who might normally break down a special-teams play in tremendous depth. His contained response might just indicate that he knows he has something good.

David Helman and Henry McKenna break down the division

So here's what Belichick, Schooler and everyone else in New England's facility won't tell you.

ESPN's Pat McAfee, a former holder and punter for the Indianapolis Colts, took the time to break down the play at the level of fine detail that Belichick might normally do.

It started with Bailey, who played for the Patriots for four years before joining the Dolphins. Schooler had his eyes fixed on Bailey before the snap, which meant that he was looking for a tell. In Bailey's case, it was a dramatic exhale, according to McAfee. Achord explained that identifying that tell is a part of developing big plays like this one, though he wouldn't confirm what Bailey's tell was.

"It's not something that every week you're probably going to be able to do or anything like that. But just going through the alerts and trying to find what is going to be that key," Achord said Tuesday.

It makes sense that the Patriots would know Bailey's tell considering New England had him on its roster in the same role. Belichick was probably surprised no one else exploited the tell. The unique part about this tell was that Bailey's deep breath came a second before his other tell. Like every other holder, Bailey lifts his hand to receive the snap. So not only did Schooler know when to turn upfield for the actual rush (with the hand), but he also knew when to start his sprint (a second earlier, in sync with the deep breath). If not for Bailey's deep breath, Schooler wouldn't know when to time up the first phase of what made this play so exciting: the run-in.

"As soon as the ball was snapped and I felt myself in the momentum, carrying, I just knew I was going to get there and just wanted to make sure I got a hand on the ball or something where I could stop the ball and hopefully one of us picked it up and get the offense spark going," Schooler told reporters after the game Sunday.

Not every special-teams player can execute this level of timing and athleticism. Achord said the coaches picked Schooler because of "the acceleration, the speed, the length." He has a 6.71-second 3-cone drill and a 4.41-second 40-yard dash. He's 6-foot-1 with a wingspan of almost 6-foot-7. Though Schooler is listed as a safety on the roster, he has no role on defense. He is on the roster exclusively for special teams, where the Patriots try to use him as a game-changer.

Not every team keeps players solely for special teams, because that would require the team to dedicate more resources and time to the unit. Generally speaking, the Patriots tend to allot more time in meetings and practice to the third phase of the game. They also have three coaches: Achord, Judge and Houston. That's a robust staff, particularly as the NFL continues to make special teams less important with rule changes. Look at this offseason's changes with the kickoff — many felt allowing a fair catch continues an effort to do away with the play.

As the NFL changes special teams rules and makes the plays more static to avoid big collisions, the Patriots have found themselves struggling to get an edge. Still, they have found a spark.

"I think that's probably the biggest point of emphasis is the limitations," Achord said. "The kickoff rules — they've changed every year from the running starts from all the motions. … So you have to have imagination. … I tell people sometimes the best ideas show up at one o'clock in the morning when we're just drawing stuff and doodling."

New England is the same team that sent Jamie Collins flying over the Colts' offensive line to block a kick in 2015. The NFL outlawed the play during the following offseason. And it was really a shot at the Patriots, because there weren't any other teams doing it. In the meantime, the Colts had to change how they executed their field goal. The holder, McAfee, remembered it distinctly.

"Scariest night of my life," McAfee said on his show while looking at the video of Collins' leap and block. "It was insane. So he had something on me. Obviously, I had to change some stuff. We started snapping on one, on two, on three. We started doing different movements. I started moving my head a little bit."

It will be interesting to see if any other team can replicate Schooler's running start, given the unique situation. Still, the NFL is a copycat league. Surely, teams will try to make the play work for them.

"We'll find out. It hasn't really been done," Schooler said. "We'll see a lot of teams going silent count and going on two to kind of deter that from happening, but I think someone's going to try it."

Does Schooler think he can do it again?

"Yeah, given the right opportunity and the right situation," he said. "Like I said, our special teams coaches — they dialed that up."

And then the question is whether the play becomes dangerous, particularly for the kicker and holder. At that point, the NFL might intervene.

In the meantime, Jets placekicker Austin Seibert has Schooler to worry about in Week 3. You can bet the holder is going to try a different snap count — and maybe even hold his breath — during New York's matchup with New England on Sunday.

Prior to joining FOX Sports as the AFC East reporter, Henry McKenna spent seven years covering the Patriots for USA TODAY Sports Media Group and Boston Globe Media. Follow him on Twitter at @henrycmckenna.

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