The Houston Texans hosted the New England Patriots on Sunday in a thriller that saw Nick Folk kick the winning field goal with fifteen seconds left.
The Patriots would win the game, and that was helped by one of the strangest plays that were ever committed. The Texans were winning 22-9 when they attempted to call an audible on a…punt?
The punt would be blocked by none other than the Texans themselves, bouncing out of bounds around the 35-yard line.
What happened in the Texans blocked punt play?
The Texans were backed up in a four-and-two-yard situation. Normally, coaches would allow their team to kick the punt, but it seemed there was more trickery attempted into this haywire play.
Texans punter Cameron Johnston either got some bad information in his headset or went AWOL when he decided to change the play at the line of scrimmage. The Texans may have been attempting a fake punt play as they lined up in what seemed to be a normal punt formation.
However, Johnston ran up to the line of scrimmage and hurriedly changed the play. This proved to be a very costly call, as Johnston kicked the ball directly into the back of the head of one of the Texans linemen, shooting the ball out of bounds on the Patriots side of the field.
The issue may have also been with the Texans wanting to draw the Patriots line with an offside call, but the receivers were not lined up to attempt to draw this call. The resulting play allowed the Patriots to get into an excellent field position.
The Texans can now add one of the strangest records to their growing resume. “NFL team achieved zero yards with a punt.” The Patriots would squander this good field position with a 52-yard field goal with 10 mins left in the third quarter.
The Patriots would go on to tie the game in the fourth quarter and eventually win the game. The Texans have to be kicking themselves for attempting to draw up such an odd play with a commanding lead of two scores.
Whoever is to blame for this one needs to watch a lot of tapes and realize that when you’re up in points for the majority of the game, you don’t take risks that could throw it all away.
The play may have been the reason the Patriots went on to score 16 unanswered points to win the game.
Edited by Jay Lokegaonkar
