{"id":21584,"date":"2018-08-20T16:09:43","date_gmt":"2018-08-20T21:09:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.clnsmedia.com\/?p=21584"},"modified":"2021-08-27T07:45:08","modified_gmt":"2021-08-27T07:45:08","slug":"belichick-flores-aggressive-patriots-defense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.clnsmedia.com\/?p=21584","title":{"rendered":"Flores’ Aggressive Approach Has Patriots Players Excited, But Belichick Says Not So Fast"},"content":{"rendered":"

FOXBORO — The Patriots pass rush was the story of the night last Thursday against the Eagles racking up eight sacks in the 37-20 win at Gillette Stadium.<\/p>\n

As I noted in my film review<\/a> this week, the Patriots defense leads the NFL in overall pressure percentage in the preseason (50 percent) and the Pats\u2019 blitz frequency is up 11 percent from a year ago (38 percent in 2018 preseason, 27 percent in 2017 regular season), according to Pro Football Focus.<\/p>\n

In his press conference Monday afternoon, I asked head coach Bill Belichick about new defensive play-caller Brian Flores and the frequency in which the Patriots have blitzed opposing quarterbacks in the first two preseason games.<\/p>\n

Belichick put the kibosh on there being a strong correlation between what we see in the preseason and what we\u2019ll see come September 9th once the regular season gets underway.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/streamable.com\/kgh5e<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re not game-planning. We’re working on things that we need to work on, and that’s what we always do in the preseason,\u201d the coach said.<\/p>\n

Belichick chalked up the increased frequency in blitzing from the Pats defense in the preseason to the team improving on areas of weakness, which makes sense given their struggles in generating pressure when blitzing the quarterback in 2017.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?time_continue=20&v=oMMHJdS56l4<\/p>\n

Last season, the Patriots only generating pressure on 35 percent of their blitzes, which ranked 30th in the NFL, according to PFF.<\/p>\n

But defensive captain Dont\u2019a Hightower would like to see the aggressiveness continue from the Patriots defense.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think a lot of guys are excited about it. It\u2019s a little bit different. I think guys are taking advantage of the opportunities,\u201d the Patriots linebacker told CLNS Media on Monday.<\/p>\n

It remains to be seen if the aggressive play-calling from Flores signifies a change in approach for the Patriots defense, or if it\u2019s just a preseason fad.<\/p>\n

But it has led to better results on the field, and it’s a welcomed change to many of the players in the locker room.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FOXBORO — The Patriots pass rush was the story of the night last Thursday against the Eagles racking up eight sacks in the 37-20 win at Gillette Stadium. As I noted in my film review this week, the Patriots defense leads the NFL in overall pressure percentage in the preseason (50 percent) and the Pats\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":131993,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[207,380,274,210],"class_list":["post-21584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-bill-belichick","tag-brian-flores","tag-donta-hightower","tag-patriots"],"yoast_head":"\nFlores' Aggressive Approach Has Patriots Players Excited, But Belichick Says Not So Fast - CLNS Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Patriots defense is playing with more aggressiveness in the preseason, but head coach Bill Belichick won't say there has been a change in approach.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.clnsmedia.com\/?p=21584\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Flores' Aggressive Approach Has Patriots Players Excited, But Belichick Says Not So Fast - CLNS Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Patriots defense is playing with more aggressiveness in the preseason, but head coach Bill Belichick won't say there has been a change in approach.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.clnsmedia.com\/?p=21584\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"CLNS Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CLNSmedia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-08-20T21:09:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-08-27T07:45:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.clnsmedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/mac-stock-photo-1024x576.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"576\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Evan Lazar\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@clnsmedia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@clnsmedia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Evan Lazar\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clnsmedia.com\\\/?p=21584#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clnsmedia.com\\\/?p=21584\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Evan Lazar\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clnsmedia.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/93c183ed668e514721ab2f9a99a90e17\"},\"headline\":\"Flores’ Aggressive Approach Has Patriots Players Excited, But Belichick Says Not So Fast\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-08-20T21:09:43+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-08-27T07:45:08+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clnsmedia.com\\\/?p=21584\"},\"wordCount\":359,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clnsmedia.com\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clnsmedia.com\\\/?p=21584#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clnsmedia.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/12\\\/mac-stock-photo.png\",\"keywords\":[\"Bill Belichick\",\"Brian Flores\",\"Dont'a Hightower\",\"Patriots\"],\"articleSection\":[\"NFL\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clnsmedia.com\\\/?p=21584\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clnsmedia.com\\\/?p=21584\",\"name\":\"Flores' Aggressive Approach Has Patriots Players Excited, But Belichick Says Not So Fast - 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