FOXBOROUGH — Like a lot of New Englanders, Steve Grogan was kicking back Thursday night and watching the Patriots — the franchise he played for from 1975-90 — when he saw something that brought back some memories.

The naked bootleg.

Jacoby Brissett scored his first career touchdown on the play, taking off around the right end and bolting 27 yards to pay dirt to give the Patriots a 10-0 lead.

It was a play Grogan made popular, particularly in his early days. In fact, Brissett’s run was the longest scoring jaunt by a Patriots signal-caller since Grogan’s 41-yard scamper 40 years ago.

“I was in my EZ chair with my feet up and when they mentioned it was the longest quarterback rushing touchdown by a Patriot since one of mine [in ’76],’’ Grogan said with a chuckle Friday afternoon. “Then my phone starting texting off the wall.’’

On first down Thursday, following the first of two fumble recoveries on kickoffs, Brissett took a snap, faked a handoff to LeGarrette Blount, and took off around right end. He sprinted to the end zone, getting a big downfield block from Malcolm Mitchell and shaking off Texans safety Andre Hal at the 5-yard line before diving into the end zone.

“It did bring back some memories a little bit,’’ Grogan said. “They ran it from a single back. We used to run it from a two-back set. [Brissett] did a nice job of showing the ball to the running back, hiding it, and getting around the corner in a hurry — that’s always the key.’’

While Brissett may have looked like he was performing a solo act on the scoring run, Grogan pointed out that the whole offensive line has to be in concert for the play to work.

“They have to block just like they were blocking the play that you’re bootlegging off of,’’ said Grogan. “If one of them hesitates a little bit or walls their guy off to the wrong side then the defense will smell it out. So they have to make the play look exactly like the run that you’re faking.’’

Brissett’s protectors did just that, with the linemen leaning left as if they were trying to clear a path for Blount. The exception was right guard Shaq Mason, who performed a perfect kickout block on Benardrick McKinney, taking the Texans linebacker out of the play.

The play was even more remarkable considering the Patriots hadn’t practiced it at full speed.

“The timing of the play between Jacoby and Shaq was really perfect, which is remarkable considering the fact that we’ve never run the play other than just in a walkthrough,’’ said coach Bill Belichick, who indicated the team ran a number of unrehearsed plays because of the short week. “But Shaq cut McKinney down at the perfect time as Jacoby was getting outside of him. McKinney just didn’t really have a chance to recover.’’

The play is meant to catch the defense off guard, but Grogan said he’d sometimes surprise his own teammates, too.

“I would run it a lot of times without telling the offensive line,’’ said Grogan, who rushed for 2,176 yards and 35 TDs in his career. “I would just kinda nod toward the wide receiver on that side of the field so that he would know that I was coming. But everybody else wouldn’t know. So they would block it just like it was the regular run and the defense would swarm to that side of the field and I would try to get around the other side.’’

Grogan remembers running a lot of bootlegs, but said one still stands out to this day.

“In [1985] against the Jets we were on the 3-yard line, I pretty much walked around the end and into the end zone for a touchdown,’’ said Grogan of the fourth-quarter score that gave the Patriots a 20-13 win. “That was pretty cool. It wasn’t the longest bootleg of my career, but it was an important one and one that worked extremely well that night . . . It’s kind of fun to be remembered for the bootleg.’’

Jim McBride can be reached at james.mcbride@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globejimmcbride.