Why Patriots WR Mack Hollins punted a football into crowd during joint practice
"Energy is important. What I learned from a coach early on in my career is that execution fuels emotion."
Mack Hollins believed the Patriots needed a spark Wednesday.
With New England matched up against the Vikings in a competitive joint practice in Minnesota, Drake Maye and the Patriots’ first-team offense found themselves out of sync while matched up against Brian Flores’ imposing pass-rushing corps.
Maye was sacked multiple times during New England’s team period, sparking fears once again among Patriots fans that Maye and New England’s work-in-progress offense was still susceptible due to a leaky offensive line.
But after several stalled plays, Hollins finally delivered for New England — reeling in a 50-yard pass from Maye for a touchdown to give his team a spark.
Recognizing that his team needed an additional jolt, Hollins opted to celebrate his score … by punting the ball into a crowd of Vikings fans at Minnesota’s practice facility.
The reason for the bombastic celebration?
“Called a play, was able to get past the coverage, Drake found me. I didn’t like the energy, so I decided to punt the ball in the end zone,” Hollins said after practice, per MassLive’s Mark Daniels. “I saved up a couple of dollars to pay the fine, and I know it’s not a flag against the team, so it doesn’t hurt the team, it just hurts my pockets, but maybe it’ll give us a little energy boost.”
New England did seem to respond after Hollins’ punt — which could cost him if the NFL opts to fine him for kicking the ball into the stands.
After multiple plays ended with Minnesota’s pass-rushers enveloping Maye, Hollins’ TD started a stretch of action where Maye hit DeMario Douglas for 25 yards before then rolling to his right and connecting with Kayshon Boutte for a 30-yard pickup.
Later in the two-minute drill, Maye found rookie TreVeyon Henderson on a wheel route and orchestrated a 60-yard touchdown.
“It was good for us. Good for us to see a defense that does a lot of different things. They got us a few times. I feel like we got them,” Maye said of the Patriots’ offensive performance against Minnesota. “It was good for us to see that and experience a new defense. Kind of very different from Washington and very different from our defense.”
The Patriots are banking on several offseason additions and the continued development of key cogs like Maye leading to marked improvement on the field.
But as New England tries to build itself as a growing power in the AFC, veterans like Hollins could play a key role when it comes to injecting energy onto a depth chart featuring plenty of inexperience.
“Energy is important. What I learned from a coach early on in my career is that execution fuels emotion,” Hollins told Daniels. “If you’re doing things right, usually the energy is pretty good.
“When you’re doing things wrong, usually the energy is not too good. So if you see good things happening, up the energy. Sometimes you have to fake it until it is real. Then you get a play like TreVeyon’s, where a 2-minute drill doesn’t have to go the full 2 minutes. It does matter.”
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