FOXBORO — There has been no shortage of praise from coach Bill Belichick this season when it comes to discussing the opposing team’s punter.
From Kansas City’s Dustin Colquitt to New Orleans’ Thomas Morstead to Houston’s Shane Lechler to Oakland’s Marquette King, Belichick gave one rave review after another. On Tuesday, he took time to express his admiration for his own punter.
Ryan Allen finished 30th [...]
FOXBORO — There has been no shortage of praise from coach Bill Belichick this season when it comes to discussing the opposing team’s punter.
From Kansas City’s Dustin Colquitt to New Orleans’ Thomas Morstead to Houston’s Shane Lechler to Oakland’s Marquette King, Belichick gave one rave review after another. On Tuesday, he took time to express his admiration for his own punter.
Ryan Allen finished 30th in the league with a gross average of 43.4 yards, a figure that was adversely impacted by a slow start in September, but mostly by what the Patriots typically ask of him. That is to execute situationally, which is a bedrock of the Belichick Way.
Allen ranks fifth after dropping 41.4 percent of his punts inside the 20-yard line.
“Punting is such a situational play; it’s not just standing there and kicking it as far as you can,” Belichick said in a conference call. “It’s making the right kick in the right situation. Sometimes part of that is the rush, sometimes part of it is the coverage, sometimes part of it is the field position and game situation, time left and so forth, and certainly the elements and field condition come into play.
“Overall he has done a very good job for us, not just in situational punts but last week, when he was backed up and had to hit for distance into the wind, he did a good job of that, too. Ryan works hard and he’s really a guy who pays attention to his job and all the little things we ask him to do. When those situations have come up, he’s done a good job of executing them.”
Allen is coming off a tremendous performance in which he helped the Patriots control field position in their 26-6 win over the New York Jets on Sunday in bitterly cold and extremely windy conditions at Gillette Stadium.
Allen placed five of his eight punts inside the New York 20, including balls at the 4, 4 and 3. His footwork combined with the legwork of the coverage team — led by Matthew Slater and Jonathan Jones — added up to an impressive net average of 41.8 yards.
“There’s a lot of gray area in punting, but situationally we were all on the same page and we got good coverage,” Allen said afterward. “We were all firing on one cylinder and when we do that, we usually get the outcome that we want as a unit. So everyone was doing their job and it was fun.”
And, as Belichick mentioned, Allen boomed a 52-yarder into the wind at the end of the first quarter to flip the field from the New England 33 to the New York 14.
A couple of interesting notes regarding the Patriots, punters and Belichick:
Allen is a left-footed punter, which has been the case with every punter Belichick has employed during his 18 seasons in New England beginning with Lee Johnson in 2000. (Belichick has previously called that trend “a coincidence.”)
And from 2001 to 2012, the Patriots had four primary punters in Ken Walter, Josh Miller, Chris Hanson and Zoltan Mesko, each of whom lasted three seasons. Interestingly enough, Johnson also punted for three seasons for the Patriots, but only one for Belichick.
The 6-foot-2, 215-pound Allen is now in his fifth season in New England after unseating Mesko and making the team as an undrafted rookie out of Louisiana Tech by way of Oregon State in 2013.
Allen did his job well enough to earn a three-year, $6.1-million extension in 2015 even though he had a year remaining on his rookie contract. However, he uncharacteristically struggled with his timing and rhythm to start this season before working through his issues.
“You have to put your nose down and keep working on it and be diligent about it,” Allen said. “That’s kind of the approach I’ve taken. It’s still not perfect and it’s still not where I want to be, but the great thing about it is you have to keep working each day. … It’s one day at a time.”
Belichick has extolled the efforts of opposing punters all season. With the playoffs on the horizon, he recognized Allen for his contributions to the Patriots.