The New England Patriots' defense didn't get a ton of attention because of Tom Brady, but they were a solid group and a big reason why the team was able to knock off the Los Angeles Rams in the Super Bowl.
According to Pro Football Focus, they were one of the better teams in forced incompletions, sitting at eighth-best in the league. 11.2 percent of passes thrown by opposing teams quarterbacks were incomplete because the Patriots' defense forced it.
The Patriots were top-ranked in the AFC East in forced incompletion rate a season ago! pic.twitter.com/qVuWPUhmK1
— PFF (@PFF) June 25, 2019
One of the reasons New England's defense has so much success is because of the focus on fundamentals. Going all the way back to when Matt Patricia was the defensive coordinator, the team has made it clear that they need the fundamentals to be the most important thing.
When current Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores was calling plays last year, he said that when the team plays with good fundamentals, they have good success:
“I think that’s where it starts. You can say all you want about first down, second down, but it starts with fundamentals,” Flores said via PatsPulpit.com. “You can’t have a good play without good fundamentals. When we play with good fundamentals, we have good production on those downs, and when we don’t, we don’t. So, we’ve just got to continue to stress the fundamentals and do a better job of playing with good fundamentals and technique.”
This season it will be Bill Belichick calling the plays, and there is no doubt he is going to be making sure the defense is all about the fundamentals.
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