Why the New England Patriots' Special Teams Could Be In Trouble

While 2013 wasn't a stellar year by New England standards, there was one particular bright spot on the scoring front: Stephen Gostkowski. The New England Patriots' place kicker led the league in scoring and became Mr. Dependable in crucial situations. He set a personal best 92.7 field goal percentage to go with his seventh straight season with a perfect extra point record.

Ryan Allen came in as a rookie and unseated fan-favorite Zoltan Mesko to become the punter for a team in the midst of massive change all over the lineup. He had a decent year in 2013, although his stats were very middle-of-the-league. But he also suffered no blocked kicks, surrendered no TDs, and put 29 kicks inside the 20 yard line. By those stats he jumped from 16th to 10th in the league.

If preseason is any indication (maybe it is, maybe it isn't), things aren't looking so good in the kicking game. In fact, I hesitate to build too much of a case based on such a small sample. But could Allen have been a flash-in-the-pan?

The Patriots vs. the Eagles was a good game... a good test of how both starters and subs should perform in the regular season. So what happened to the special teams' units for the Patriots? Well, a bad snap resulted in rookie long-snapper Tyler Ott being shown the door, but punter Ryan Allen got his first taste of what it feels like to have a punt blocked (and letting one go between his hands).

Well, that should be the last one of those Allen ever has to experience; Belichick will see to that. I am also pretty confident that the kicker will do whatever it takes to get his kicks off without a hitch from now on.

Stephen Gostkowski is another story. I am still not ready to pronounce judgment on such short notice, but one has to wonder what is going on with Mr. Dependable. He has maintained his 100% rating on extra points (six-for-six) but has missed on both field goal attempts this summer. One could argue that a 54 yard attempt is no piece of cake, but this is Gostkowski we are talking about.

Two more weeks of preseason will tell us the whole story, but there should be a little concern that something may be wrong with the place-kicker. Hopefully, it isn't time to start thinking about some competition for him. And maybe this is a good thing; the last thing a kicker needs is complacency to set-in. If he can get his game-face back, Gostkowski should still have a few good years left in that leg.