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September 24, 2007

Belichick: Red-zone defense "ridiculous"

Hey all --

Admittedly, when Bill Belichick stood up after yesterday's game and started talking about how his team still had so much to work on, I groaned. Three games, 38 points per game, defense has given up five total touchdowns. What is there to beef about?

But there is one thing that the team clearly needs to fix, and one thing that Belichick clearly isn't happy about: the Patriots' red-zone defense.

All of the five touchdowns they've allowed this season have been in the red zone, a 100 percent conversion rate that has the coach irked.

"It's ridiculous," he said. "It's a combination of bad coaching and bad playing. Hopefully we'll do a better job going forward. It won't take much."

When rookie Trent Edwards came into the game for the injured J.P. Losman yesterday, Belichick said it changed some things for New England defensively, but took away some concern because Edwards is a pocket passer, where Losman is a threat to get outside the pocket.

The coach also lauded the play of Russ Hochstein, who stepped in at right guard yesterday, and said that punter Chris Hanson did what the team wanted him to by making it impossible for Buffalo returner Roscoe Parrish to get his hands on the ball and perhaps have a big return.

Players are in meetings for most of the day, but media will be in the locker room around 4:30 p.m. We'll have a locker room look then.

shalise

Posted by Shalise Manza Young  at 12:16 PM | Permalink