As I drink my full priced medium iced coffee from Dunkin Donuts after being up way past my bedtime to watch the Patriots sneak one out against the Chiefs, I can’t help but wonder what Ryan Allen is thinking.
Sunday night the Patriots set an NFL record as the first team in the Super Bowl era to have zero punts and zero penalties in a game. Of course the haters will say “SHOCKED THE PATS DIDN’T HAVE ANY PENALTIES!! EYE ROLL EMOJI” but in reality, the Patriots did have a few penalties against them. They were just called back because of offsetting penalties or declined. I always love this argument anyways like oh they didn’t have any penalties must be the refs. Well maybe the Patriots coaches just coach the team to eliminate small mistakes and give away free yards? Patriots are the least penalized team in the NFL through 6 weeks, and trust me the NFL doesn’t have a Patriots bias.
Not that the matchup wasn’t equal; Kansas City only punted once the entire game. But in the 4th quarter when you’re going score for score with the Patriots, one punt is one too many. The Patriots won the game because they had the ball on the last possession. Letting Tyreek Hill score that quickly was absolutely genius by Belichick and the Pats defense. If the Chiefs had gotten the ball back, I’m having trouble finding any evidence that suggests we would not have seen another 65+ yard touchdown. It pains me to think what would have been just 8 months ago if the Patriots had the last possession against the Eagles, but I digress.
If the Patriots had lost last night, you sure as hell could and would have blamed the entire defense (except for whoever was responsible for covering Travis Kelce). The mantra of this team is and has always been: bend, don’t break. They do a great job of allowing chunk yardage, not giving up the huge play, and limiting offenses to FG’s instead of TD’s. And for the first half they did just that.
But the Tom Brady fumble on 3rd and 10 in the 3rd quarter when Tom had at least 2 minutes to get rid of the ball was one of the worst mistakes I’ve ever seen from him. It was so uncharacteristically Tom Brady I thought they were destined to lose this game. But if there is no fumble, there is most likely a Ryan Allen punt, and this blog doesn’t exist.
So it’s time to ask: Is Ryan Allen getting too comfortable in the Patriots offense? I mean, it’s been 11 days since Allen played a meaningful snap. Bill Belichick dreams about left footed punters at night, so one would think he’d be heavily incorporated into the game plan of a game with so much magnitude.
We will see how the game plan shakes out as the season continues, but I’ve got my eye on you Ryan Allen. For now, we’ll have to settle for watching highlights like this one, which Bill Belichick has undoubtedly added to his porn floppy disk.
That punt though.
👀 @R_Allen86 @Jonathan_Jones2
cc: @richeisen#GoPats | #HOUvsNE pic.twitter.com/iScr3jecdv
— New England Patriots (@Patriots) September 9, 2018