It's been raining yellow flags this season for the New England Patriots.
The Patriots came off their bye week as the most-penalized team in the NFL. With that, they're still 7-2 and on a five-game winning streak, though coach Bill Belichick knows the penalties haven't made things any easier.
"[I]t just creates more opportunities for our opponents," Belichick said this week, via Patriots.com. "It gives them extra plays on defensive penalties and it negates yardage on offense and puts us in long yardage."
"... We've been able to overcome a few of them, but they've also gotten us into a lot of trouble. In the long run, it's certainly not the way we want to go. We want to try to play penalty-free and take advantage of extra opportunities that our opponents give us and not give to them."
New England averages 8.8 penalties a game for 77.7 yards a contest, according to teamrankings.com. Last year, the Patriots averaged just 37.5 penalty yards a game.
"We're going to continue to work hard on it," Belichick said. "It's certainly an area that hasn't been good for us over the course of the first nine games and we're trying hard to correct it. I think if we don't correct it, it's going to cost us so we're going to do what we can to coach it better and hopefully play better."
New England averages 8.8 penalties a game for 77.7 yards a contest, according to teamrankings.com. Last year, the Patriots averaged just 37.5 penalty yards a game.
"We're going to continue to work hard on it," Belichick said. "It's certainly an area that hasn't been good for us over the course of the first nine games and we're trying hard to correct it. I think if we don't correct it, it's going to cost us so we're going to do what we can to coach it better and hopefully play better."
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