Friday, October 21, 2011

Patriots' defense seeing lots of yellow in '11

The New England Patriots’ have the second-most penalized defense in the NFL.

Through six games, New England (5-1) has 50 defensive penalties and has racked up 432 penalty yards on defense. The Detroit Lions lead the NFL in defensive penalties with 60 flags for 445 yards.

The Patriots have also been surprisingly undisciplined on the offensive side of the ball in terms of penalties, having 39 flags (10th most) called against it for 353 yards (7th most).

With New England one of the handful of teams without a bye prior to this week, the Patriots should drop a little in both categories with a Week 7 bye, though the numbers are uncharacteristic for a Bill Belichick-led team.

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