Buffalo Bills punter Matt Haack ran out onto the field at Gillette Stadium five times during Sunday's game to hold for field goals and extra points. He did so quickly and effectively, and he celebrated with his teammates afterward.
He had a lot to celebrate on a day where his job was unusual. By the time Sunday’s 33-21 victory over the New England Patriots concluded, Haack's absence on the stat sheet was notable: The Bills did not punt once.
Haack never had a game like that in his career. Neither had Patriots coach Bill Belichick. Buffalo became the first team with zero punts in a game against a Belichick-coached team, across 474 games, including playoffs, per ESPN Stats & Info. Despite the significance, because he had stayed so locked in on preparing, Haack didn’t fully process that he hadn’t punted until he was headed to the tunnel after the game.
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“It was kind of like walking off the field after a big win where everyone's excited, and, like, ‘Oh yeah, by the way, we didn't punt,” Haack said.
Long snapper Reid Ferguson realized what might happen a little earlier in the game, but kept it to himself. Even when tight end Dawson Knox caught a two-yard touchdown pass to put the Bills up 12 points with 2:30 left in the game, Ferguson still didn’t mention anything to anyone else.
“I never said anything about it, just because I don't want to jinx it,” Ferguson said. “It was certainly on my mind, but not in terms of setting a record. It was just on my mind more thinking about the fact that our offense was performing at such a high level, and that kind of reflects on the team as a whole.”
Ferguson recalled all the times former Saints punter Thomas Morstead and quarterback Drew Brees took pictures after no-punt performances. The Bills specialists decided to take a picture of their own on Haack’s phone with Josh Allen to commemorate the day. Haack, Ferguson and Allen held up zeros, alongside kicker Tyler Bass.
“Good day at the office,” Ferguson tweeted. “#NoPunts.”
Special teams coordinator Heath Farwell missed Sunday’s game while in Covid-19 protocol, and assistant coach Matt Smiley took over Farwell’s duties. After the game and the picture, the two coaches and the three specialists took to the group text to talk about it.
“Just a lot of jokes about it,” Haack said. “We’re always in communication after the games on our phones and stuff. We’ve got a little group message and kind of joking around, ‘Had a heavy day,’ and all that kind of stuff.”
Haack isn’t on Twitter, but he has seen plenty of the jokes about his unusual day at the office. Different teammates in Buffalo have shown him some tweets, and one of his college roommates from Arizona State sent another.
“The one that I've been shown the most is the whole, ‘The Bills owe Matt Haack an apology. He could have stayed home for Christmas with his family,’ " Haack said. “I thought that was a good one.”
“A couple of the funny ones I did see were like, ‘Did the guys even have to shower after the game?’ " Ferguson added. “That kind of stuff, like, ‘It was nice to get a day off,’ and I'm like, ‘Well, he did have to go out there and hold some field goals that were pretty important.’ It's all lighthearted, it's all in good fun.”
Haack and Ferguson both laughed, but it’s inaccurate to say Haack didn’t do any work on Sunday. To start, as Ferguson pointed out, he did indeed take the field for holds.
Now in his fifth year in the NFL, Haack didn’t start holding until his junior year of college at ASU, an unusually late timeline for a punter. ASU had a backup quarterback that handled holding duties. Despite the late start, he loves holding. In Buffalo, he has built great chemistry with Bass.
“Matt is very in tune with Tyler as a kicker,” Ferguson said. “So that helps Tyler that much more on, ‘Hey, how does he like the hold tilted? The lean of the hold?’ All that kind of stuff. … So that's kind of helped Tyler take the next step in his football career, as well.”
But regardless of his holds, Haack stays busy, making sure he’s prepared throughout the game. Every time the Bills offense gets the ball, he starts with helping Ferguson warm up with a few long snaps. Haack catches those and does some drops. Next, he’ll get two to three punts into the net, and then perhaps more if the team is getting first downs but hasn’t quite reached field goal range.
Between pregame, halftime and sideline warmups, all the punts add up.
“A lot of people will say, ‘Oh, well your legs should be fresh, right?’ " Haack said. “And it's like, ‘Well, yeah. But little do you know, I still punted 50 balls the other day.’ ”
Fifty is an estimate, but he knows that on any game day, he’ll punt more than he does in practice. He’ll start well before the game, and then needs to stay warmed up on the sidelines throughout it. In a typical practice, he’ll punt about 40 times. Sundays, he’ll pass that mark quickly.
“On a game day, I'm probably over 40 punts from warm up to sideline in the first half,” he said.
Haack has punted 45 times this season, averaging 2.8 punts a game. If he’s already punting more than 50 times in various warmups, the drop off to a zero-punt game is small.
Staying ready is critical. It can be challenging to go that long without taking the field. Players, particularly on offense, talk all the time about how much it helps to get in a rhythm. Specialists feel that too.
There's an odd balance. Haack, of course, wants his team to score and his job as a punter to be rendered obsolete within the course of the game. He wants his team to win, and the best way to do that is to score points. But there lies a danger in actively rooting against punting, which can lead to complacency.
“It is weird,” Haack said. “I have to have the mindset of ‘I want to go punt. I want to be able to pin the other team deep and give my defense good field position.’ You’ve kind of got to be positive and take advantage of the opportunities when you're out there. Because as a specialist, you don't get many, regardless of your position.
“So, I would say I'm not necessarily out there saying, ‘Oh I hope I don't punt, I don't want to punt,’ because as soon as you start doing that, then your number will be called upon, and you’ll have the wrong mindset. But if we don't punt because we're scoring touchdowns in a game like Sunday, then it’s a good thing.”
Haack says it’s a unique situation, and Ferguson says there’s a bittersweet element. Any athlete wants to contribute to the win, but not having to punt reflects on the team’s overall health. Haack and Ferguson both separately compared it to relief pitching in baseball. There’s all the anticipation of not quite knowing how you’ll be used. And the stakes are high, too.
“They sit in the bullpen all game, waiting for their number to be called,” Ferguson said. "At the end of the game, maybe you're setting up for the closer, and you come in with guys on base, on second and third with one out. You’re up by one, and you can't let any runs cross the plate. You don't have really any margin for error.”
The Bills offense put up 428 total yards against a Patriots defense that entered the game allowing a third-best 307.5 yards a game. The Bills had 28 first downs, went 3-of-4 on fourth down, and outside of the end of halves, had just one drive where they did not score, turning it over on downs. All of that made way for Belichick to finally see a game where his team did not force a punt.
“I think that's more a testament to our offense and defense,” Haack said. “It's cool that I got to be a part of that, but it's also a testament to Bill Belichick and the Patriots. I mean, that's an insane stat. I didn't know that until after the game.”
When Haack looks back at this game years from now, he anticipates he’ll still remember the Bills offense and defense first, before reflecting on the oddity of his day. He’ll boot to his teammates first.
“Honestly, probably start with how the game was, how it went,” he said. “The parameters of the game, how big of a win it was. And then obviously, probably finishing with ‘Also, I didn't punt, because we didn’t have to.' "
