Surprisingly, during the last few years of the Bill Belichick era, special teams took quite a dip.

Once a beloved part of the game for BB, under Cam Achord, the unit was undisciplined, lacked fundamentals and frankly hurt the team more than it helped it.

After Sunday’s resurgence in Cincinnati under first year coordinator Jeremy Springer, it’s clear that if this Patriots team is going to win games, that unit is going to need to be key contributors, especially if the offense is only going to score 17-20 points.

Both Joe Cardona and Brendan Schooler had fantastic showings against the Bengals. Schooler recored the fastest speed of any NFL player during Week 1 while covering a kick and Cardona had a massive forced fumble. I caught up with each of them on Wednesday in the locker room and asked how it felt to have such meaningful contributions to the team’s opening day win.

“I think it gives us a lot of confidence,” said Schooler. “Just the things we’ve had to overcome with the hard OTA’s, hard training camp, I think they made things hard on us on purpose so when we go out there on game day things come easy. You saw the guys celebrating after big plays, like when Joe forced that fumble. Guys were swarming around him, tapping him on the helmet because we know it’s a huge momentum changing play. We can set the tone for the offense if we get a good return or we can set the tone for the defense with a big hit or a big stop. So, just taking pride in being on the field and being part of game changing plays, that’s what we’ve all kind of taken to heart.”

“A game like Sunday’s is a great reminder that this game has three phases,” added Cardona. “For guys to come out and commit to doing well on special teams, it’s a hard decision to make. There are inherently dangerous plays, different than most offensive and defensive skillsets and you’re asking a guy to go out there and do it for the good of the team and not for themselves. For us, to go out and have success, it’s a part of building a culture and building a commitment to excellence on special teams.”

Both Schooler and Cardona acknowledged that Springer has sort of reinvigorated the room with his energy, but as a special teamer, no matter who the coordinator has been, it’s a commitment to the group that matters most.

“I think the one thing we’ve always done a good job of here is no matter who is calling the plays, we’re always out there for each other,” said Cardona. “That’s the real commitment we have. We can only hope to be put in good situations by our coaches, but at the end of the day, it’s not the guys on the sideline you play for, it’s the guys that are on the field with you. I take a lot of pride in going out there and putting it on the line for the person next to me and I hope the teammates are doing the same and feel the same way.”

“Springer always comes in with a lot of juice and it’s a good change for the building I think,” added Schooler. “It’s just different. It’s a change. Change can be good and change can be bad, but I think his energy is contagious. Going out there wanting to perform well and play well for him and play well for Coach Quinn and Coach Tip, those guys are in there busting their butts to get the game plan ready.

“So, us being able to go out there and execute, it’s just a testament to them and their ability to get us ready to go on game day.”