In this space, we look at the snap-to-hold operation on field goals and extra points. We’ve got a heavy week (7 kicks), so let’s get to it.
Last week was rough. There was a missed kick, but more than that, Matt Orzech had his least accurate game of the season. How did he do this week?
One week after his worst performance, Orzech turned in his best. Even the snaps to the body were splitting the difference between body and hold point.
Kick 1: Extra Point (Make)
Nice snap, if a bit slow. Slightly to the body of Whelan, with the spin
of the ball allowing him to catch it by the laces and get it down for a nice, easy hold. Ball is leaning slightly forward and away from Smack.
Karl Brooks [94] is on the right side of the screen. He gets his arm wide, but it doesn’t do much to divert the path of the rusher. This was closer than it should have been. This was also the slowest snap-to-kick time of the day (1.32 seconds), which led to this being closer than it should have been. That’s on Orzech: his snap-to-holder time was 0.36 seconds, his slowest time of the day.
Kick 2: Extra Point (Make)
Nice snap. More or less the same as the last one. Slightly to the body, with the spin allowing Whelan to catch it by the laces. Good hold. Good kick.
Brooks is slightly slow out of his stance on the right side and only barely gets a hand on the nameplate as the rusher flies past him.
Snap-to-holder: 0.32 seconds
Snap-to-kick: 1.27 seconds
Kick 3: 41-yard Field Goal (Make)
Same as the last two. Great snap, great hold, kick is a no-doubter.
Once again, Brooks barely gets a hand on the rusher. With this kick set up on the right hash (as opposed to the dead-center positioning of the first two), the ball has to travel slightly back to the left, towards the rusher. This one was close.
Snap-to-holder: 0.28 seconds
Snap-to-kick: 1.24 seconds
Kick 4: Extra Point (Make)
Great snap, great hold, great kick.
Brooks does a good job on the outside this time, but a rusher is able to split Aaron Banks [65] and Anthony Belton [71] and gets real close to blocking this one. This was Orzech’s second-slowest snap-to-holder time, which contributed to this close call.
Snap-to-holder: 0.34 seconds
Snap-to-kick: 1.31 seconds
Kick 5: Extra Point (Make)
Good snap, slightly to the body. Good hold. Good kick.
Brooks gets a hand on the nameplate of the rusher as he dips past. It’s worth saying that, if the choice is a wide rusher or an interior rusher on these block attempts, you’ll take the man off the edge every time. Unless it’s a slow snap-to-kick time, it’s really hard to get a block off the edge. Still, it’d be nice to give up at least a little resistance.
Snap-to-kick time here was 1.26 seconds, which won’t really give the edge a chance to block this.
Snap-to-holder: 0.30 seconds
Snap-to-kick: 1.26 seconds
Kick 6: 51-yard Field Goal (Make)
Good snap, to the body of Whelan. Orzech does a great job with his spin consistency: I can’t remember a kick this year where Whelan caught the ball by anything other than the laces in the same spot.
Brooks gets a little bit more of the rusher this time as he tries to dip pass, so this is not particularly close to being blocked.
Snap-to-holder: 0.28 seconds
Snap-to-kick: 1.23 seconds
Kick 7: 38 yard Field Goal (Make)
Perfect snap, right over the hold point. Good hold. Good kick.
There is no rush. The Patriots have given up at this point.
Snap-to-holder: 0.32 seconds
Snap-to-kick: 1.28 seconds
For the first time this season, I tracked the snap-to-holder time and snap-to-kick time for every kick this week. I messaged briefly with Chris Kluwe over the past week and the range he gave me for snap-to-kick is between 1.2-1.28.
Average time this week: 1.27 seconds.
Albums listened to: The Gaslight Anthem – The ‘59 Sound; Michael Nau – Popfly
