Down 25 points in Super Bowl LI, the Patriots needed a series of best-case scenarios to climb back into the game. Even after they cut the Falcons’ lead to 16, they still needed two touchdowns and two extra points just to tie. All the while, they had to hold Atlanta scoreless.
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They succeeded, and one of the key players in that effort wasn’t a defensive end, linebacker or cornerback. He doesn’t catch, deflect or even deflate footballs. All he does is kick them.
How about some love for Stephen Gostkowski?
We’ll remember Tom Brady’s 62 passes, Julian Edelman’s double-clutch catch and James White’s game-winning touchdown run. Here’s what we’ll forget: Gostkowski’s high-arcing kickoffs, also known as mortar kicks.
In the final six minutes of regulation, he dropped two kickoffs inside Atlanta’s 5-yard line. In an instant, the Patriots’ coverage unit swarmed the Falcons’ returners, halting Justin Hardy at the 10 on the first and Eric Weems at the 11 on the second. Both possessions ended like most drives that begin around the 10 — with a punt.
While the rest of us see kickoffs as an opportunity for a bathroom break, the Patriots see them as a chance to change games.
How do you neutralize big-play offenses? Don’t spot them yards. Pin them as deep as possible on their side of the field. Make them drive farther.
Outcomes of drives, 2011-2015
Gostkowski proved Sunday that kickers can influence games beyond field goals and extra points, as the Bucs argued last spring when they traded into the second round to take Florida State kicker Roberto Aguayo.
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"(Aguayo’s) also a weapon as a kickoff guy, too," general manager Jason Licht said. "He can either put it out of the end zone or he can hang it high and drop it on the 5 or the 2."
Once the season arrived, however, Tampa Bay chose to conceal that weapon, attempting only eight mortar kicks (which we’re defining as kickoffs that opponents took possession of between the goal line and the 10). Roughly 70 percent of Aguayo’s kickoffs resulted in touchbacks, the NFL’s sixth-highest rate.
Kickoff touchback percentage (excluding onside kicks), 2016
The Bucs’ mortar kicks failed to produce favorable outcomes, which isn’t necessarily Aguayo’s fault. He dropped all but one kick at or inside the 2, and yet opponents began, on average, at the 22. They went on to score four times (one touchdown and three field goals) and didn’t turn the ball over once.
Contrast the Bucs with the Patriots, who attempted four times as many mortar kicks. Opponents went on to score six times (three touchdowns and three field goals) and turned the ball over five times.
Opponent drive outcomes after a mortar kick, 2016
During the regular season, such plays might be of little consequence. Come playoffs, though — when it’s time to pull out all the stops — they can make all the difference.
In the fourth quarter Sunday, we saw what truly separates the Patriots from their peers. It’s more than Tom Brady. It’s more than luck. It’s a mentality. They relentlessly search for any possible advantage, and once they identify it, they test it over and over and over.
Some might call New England’s comeback a miracle. It wasn’t. It was the culmination of months and months of exhaustive preparation.
Of course Gostkowski perfectly executed two mortar kicks in six minutes. He had been kicking them all season long.
Contact Thomas Bassinger at tbassinger@tampabay.com. Follow @tometrics.
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