How The Patriots Successfully Executed A Field Goal With No Timeouts Remaining

In the seventeen years Bill Belichick has been head coach of the New England Patriots, a key piece to the teams sustained success has been the way Belichick continues to have his team prepared for nearly every type of in-game scenario before it happens or what he refers to it as, “situational football”.

On Sunday against the Saints, another example of his teams extra preparation showed when they found themselves in a difficult position with just 14 seconds on the clock and no timeouts to use while in field goal range 28 yards out just before halftime.

The previous play was a Tom Brady scramble on a third and nine that setup fourth down while also taking seven seconds off the clock, what resulted was Brady quickly getting to his feet and signaling the field goal unit to get onto the field.

In that short time span the offense swiftly departed the field as the field goal unit came out, they setup, snapped the ball, and Stephen Gostkowski kicked it through the uprights as time expired on the half. Three points.

Precision.

https://twitter.com/Patriots/status/910284505314979841

The fire-drill field goal the Patriots ran at the end of the first half took a total of 14 seconds from tackle to snap. Impressive. pic.twitter.com/zufhntpQ6S

— Zack Cox (@zm_cox) September 18, 2017

As for how many other NFL franchises would have been able to pull this off its hard to know, but former Patriots wide receiver Donte’ Stallworth chimed in over Twitter to provide some insight as to how the team managed to pull off the kick without running out of time.

Josh waving the towel on sideline, Brady waving his finger. That means RUN TF off the field, FG unit run on the field for last second FGA.

— Donté Stallworth (@DonteStallworth) September 17, 2017

The little things get you a perfectly executed play and 3 pts headed into the locker room at the half. That was routine for the Pats.

— Donté Stallworth (@DonteStallworth) September 17, 2017

Perfect field-goal operation with the running clock to end the half. The Patriots practice that almost every single day.

— Jeff Howe (@jeffphowe) September 17, 2017

Stephen Gostkowski said the #Patriots have practiced this hurried sequence hundreds of times, but never used it in a game until Sunday. pic.twitter.com/xaGGAfHPt9

— Henry McKenna (@henrycmckenna) September 20, 2017

Speaking after the game with USA Today’s Henry McKenna, Gostkowski explained what went down on the play.

“We’ve been practicing that probably once a week ever since I’ve been here,” Gostkowski said Monday. “It was nice to actually run it because you run it in practice all the time, and you’re like, ‘Ah, this is never going happen.’ And I used to say that jokingly. But it’s one of those things you’re glad that you did practice it because when you get in that situation, everything’s hurried up. You know that you’ve done it before, and you can do it without freaking out when the circumstances change.”

“Even though it was a short field goal, it’s one of those plays that will stick out compared to a normal kick,” Gostkowski said. “I’m just glad that we did it successfully after the hundreds of hundreds of times we’ve practice that.”

The end result was three additional points the Patriots were able to add to the scoreboard before halftime. Needing all they could get against a potent Saints offense, the mastermind of head coach Bill Belichick continued to find ways to play chess while the rest of the league plays checkers. It is very clear that no situation is ever viewed as “never going to happen” in the eyes of Belichick.

Situational Football.