Cincinnati Bengals

Belichick Brushes Off Concerns About Patriots Red Zone Defense

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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The Patriots defense and the Bengals offense have both struggled in the red zone through the first five weeks of the season.

Something has to give as Bengals — ranked 29th in red zone offense — visit Foxborough on Sunday to take on a Patriots team that ranks 30th in the league in red zone defense.

In his Friday morning press conference, Patriots head coach Bill Belichick spoke about his team’s red zone struggles.

“Statistically some things are better than others but regardless I think we try to continue to improve in all of those areas. It doesn’t really matter what the stats are or aren’t. I mean it matters; they’re somewhat relevant. But I think improving in every area is important, so yeah, we’re going to address it regardless in everything.”

Belichick would go on to elaborate on how the defense has to adjust when an opponent gets the ball inside the 20-yard line.

“Offensively everybody’s closer to the line so the safeties are linebackers; linebackers are in a lot of cases borderline defensive lineman. Everything’s just compressed. So, there are a lot of things you have to handle differently. Routes are different, coverages are different.”

He also broke down how the speed of the defense becomes less of a factor when teams drive the ball inside the 20-yard line.

“There’s only so far you can run. Technique is important, coordination offensively or defensively is important, the proper spacing, the proper leverage, using the space that you have and of course everything happens so much quicker down there because there’s less space and less time so throws and catches have to be good, a lot of tight coverage, a lot of catches away from the body into a short space.”

The Bengals have only converted 6-of-15 red zone trips into touchdowns this season, so Sunday’s game could be an opportunity for the Patriots to improve their numbers.

It’s not all bad news (or even mostly bad news) for the Patriots on the defensive side of the football, though. New England is only allowing 14.8 points per game — good for fourth overall in the league.

The Bengals and Patriots are set for a 1 p.m. kickoff Sunday at Gillette Stadium. Ian Eagle and Dan Fouts will call the game on CBS.

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