FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Ryan Allen didn’t punt at all in the New England Patriots’ 51-17 victory over Jacksonville.
That doesn’t mean he had the day off.
As the holder for placekicker Stephen Gostkowski, Allen got plenty of work Sunday. For three field goals and six extra points – extending Gostkowski’s streak to an NFL-record 425 PATs in a row – Allen had a perfect view of one of the NFL’s most automatic kicker.
“He’s not a robot,” Allen said when asked if Gostkowski ever misses extra points in practice. “But I don’t think so. I really don’t think so.”
The Patriots stomped all over the Jaguars on Sunday, scoring on every one of their possessions until backup quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo came in to kneel for the final two plays. So while Allen the punter wasn’t needed, Allen the holder was pretty busy.
With Allen holding and rookie Joe Cardona as long snapper, Gostkowski made a pair of 46-yard field goals and another from 20 yards. He went 6 for 6 on extra points, breaking the record of 422 in a row held by Matt Stover.
And with the Patriots scoring in bunches, Gostkowski had all those kickoffs to handle, too.
“It’s always fun to do well and win, just being on a good team that scores a lot of points,” Gostkowski said. “When you kick, you’re a beneficiary of opportunity. I’ve had a lot of opportunities to kick a lot of field goals, a lot of extra points.”
But the Patriots have benefited from having Gostkowski, too.
Picked in the fourth round of the 2006 draft – the earliest Coach Bill Belichick has ever taken a kicker – Gostkowski replaced Adam Vinatieri after he helped the Patriots win three Super Bowls, kicking the winning field goals at the end of two of them.
Ten seasons later, Gostkowski is now second only to quarterback Tom Brady in Patriots tenure. So it was fitting that on the day Brady threw for his 400th touchdown, Gostkowski was collecting a milestone of his own.
“The durability, longevity and, obviously, consistent production that both of them have had … I feel really fortunate to have coached and had guys like that on our team,” Belichick said. “They had a good day, as they’ve had for many, many days in their career.”
In his career, Gostkowski has missed just one extra point; as a rookie, he had one blocked.
He has led the league in scoring in each of the last three seasons, and with 15 points on Sunday he took over the lead for this season, too.
And by making 87.1 percent of his field goal attempts, he is the best in NFL history for kickers who have tried more than 150 kicks.
Gostkowski said he looked up to Vinatieri and Stover, “the guys that do it for a long time and do it consistently.”
“That’s what I’m trying to do is be good every day, every time I go out there,” he said. “It’s easy when it’s going good and it’s really hard when things are going bad. But you just ride the wave and try to be good as much as you can.”
NOTES: The Patriots traded a sixth-round draft pick to the Chicago Bears for linebacker Jon Bostic, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
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