The New England Patriots defense starred during the second practice of training camp on Thursday, but even they couldn’t escape some punishment at the end of the session.
The defensive unit dominated a red zone 11-on-11 period at the end of practice, forcing 10 straight incompletions from Mac Jones and Bailey Zappe combined. But on the final play, Hunter Henry caught a touchdown to snap the drought.
Allowing that touchdown came with a price, as the members of the Patriots defense had to drop and do 10 pushups despite their overall success in the drill.
Patriots cornerback Malcolm Butler explained why the defense was the one having to do pushups, and he used it as an opportunity to poke a little fun at his head coach.
“Man, I don’t know man. Looks like Bill Belichick is an offensive coach now. He ain’t on our side no more,” Butler said with a smile, per a video on Patriots.com. “But no matter if we hold those guys out of the red zone, I think we lost the one that counted the most. Championship defense. We’re going to compete, we’re going to finish to the end.”
It was certainly a good sign for the Patriots defense to turn in an impressive performance after Jones carved the unit up during Day 1 of training camp by completing 18-of-22 passes.
And while Belichick might not have rewarded the defense for their stalwart showing, especially at the end of the practice, Butler cracked another joke when referring to a way his teammates could celebrate their terrific effort.
“It worked out good for us,” Butler said. “We’ll get some skittles and some snickers for the good job we’ve done.”
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