The Patriots earned their first shutout since 2009 when they beat the Dolphins yesterday, 28-0. Cause for celebration, right?
Well, not exactly. New England's defensive coordinator Matt Patricia said the team still had a lot of work to do despite its solid outing on Sunday.
"I think absolutely youre always looking for improvement," Patricia said. "Obviously youre happy with the effort and excited for the players. Theyre the ones who did all the work on the field to achieve certain goals, but certainly when you go back and look at the film, theres a lot of things we need to do better, improve on and work on and thats really what well focus on, obviously more so than just the scoreboard there."
The Dolphins helped the Patriots with a fumble near the goal line in the third quarter. And Dolphins receiver Armon Binn dropped what looked like it might've been a touchdown in the second quarter.
But, as Patricia pointed out, any time you can shut out an NFL team, it's a performance to be proud of. Certainly New England's seven sacks were a sign of the defense's continuous effort, even when it appeared the game was out of reach for Miami.
"You know, it was a good effort by everybody out there," he said. "I think guys really tried hard and did things we asked them to do and were pleased with that, but there are certainly some areas of improvement that you can really take a look at and say, 'We really have to do some things better here because they just werent good enough.' "