Bill Belichick said Matthew Slater’s blocked punt was ‘probably the difference in the game’
"The blocked punt obviously was a huge field-position play."
Ask Patriots head coach Bill Belichick which play he thinks changed the trajectory of Sunday’s game against the Cowboys, and he’ll have an answer for you: Matthew Slater’s blocked punt in the first quarter.
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“Probably the difference in the game, really, when you come right down to it,” Belichick said in his postgame press conference. “I thought that Joe Judge and Cam [Achord], we had a real aggressive approach in the kicking game today, and we were trying to challenge the ball handling and I thought we did a good job of that. Forced some tough catches with their specialists, and the blocked punt obviously was a huge field-position play. Enabled us to play from ahead, and that was a good thing.”
The play gave the Patriots energy and momentum going forward, and they defeated the Cowboys 13-9. Slater, who got past Cowboys linebacker Joe Thomas to block the Chris Jones punt, said he knew in the moment that he had a chance to make a difference for the team.
“I think as the play was developing, I said to myself, ‘I might have a chance here,’” he said. “As I kept going, I was like, ‘Oh, I might really have a chance here,’ and then you never know when you get to the block point, any number of things could happen. So fortunately I was able to get my hand on it and that play was one we took advantage of and scored offensively the following series.”
He also knew that windy-weather was going to be a contributing factor.
“We look at a number of different things,” he added. “I think the wind tonight dictated a lot of where he could go with the football and we wanted to be conscious of that as we called the game tonight.”
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