The New England Patriots may be struggling in their game against the Miami Dolphins, but that isn't stopping legendary head coach Bill Belichick from digging deep into his playbook to try to change his team's fortunes. Leading 17-3 late in the third quarter, the Dolphins were preparing to attempt a field goal that would put them up by three scores.

However, Belichick implemented a creative defensive alignment that allowed the Patriots to block the attempt and then recover the football out around mid-field.

Instead of having all 11 defenders line up directly on the defensive line, as is customary for a field goal block coverage, the Patriots sent defender Brenden Schooler in motion from the sideline, allowing him to get a running start, sidestep the Dolphins' offensive line, and block the field goal with ease.

It was a bizarre play, and one might speculate on whether or not the Dolphins' offensive line was even aware of Schooler's presence coming from the side of the field.

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NBC commentator Cris Colinsworth remarked that he had never seen the formation used before, before predicting that teams at all levels would start to implement the strategy for field goal defense moving forward.

The epic play came at an opportune time for New England, who had struggled for most of the first half and third quarter leading up to that point, particularly on offense, where Mac Jones and his teammates were unable to generate much movement down the field.

In any case, expect to see this attempted several more times over the coming weeks.