Flag Day: Patriots struggle with penalties in win over Bucs

TAMPA BAY — On a night where the color rush uniforms presented us with two strong shades, it turned out that the most dominant hue was yellow. As in penalty flags.

The two teams combined for 21 penalties — 12 for the Patriots and nine for the Bucs. New England was hit with a walloping 108 penalty yards, while Tampa had to deal with 70 penalty yards. It made for an ugly evening.


The 12 penalties were a season-high for the Patriots, who had seven for 55 yards in last week’s loss to Carolina. That sparked questions about officiating, and it's reasonable to speculate it might happen again this week.

“Two weeks in a row, we’ve had far too many penalties,” Bill Belichick said after the game. “Whether it’s not being coached well enough, we have too many mistakes in that area. I’ve got to of a better job and our team has to do a better job. We can’t keep giving opportunities to good football teams. We’re continually having to overcome penalties, so I’ve got to do a better job of getting that corrected.”

It didn’t break the recent team mark for penalties in a game — that was a whopping 15 flags in a September 2014 win over the Vikings — but it was still enough to make sure everyone will be walking on eggshells when they put the film on Friday at Gillette Stadium.

“We can’t let the refs control the game,” explained running back James White. “We just have to play better. Be smarter. And not put it in the refs hands to be the big difference maker in the game.”

The Patriots’ penalties were especially egregious on special teams. Entering Thursday’s game, remarkably, the special teamers had taken more penalties than any other positional grouping, and that was the case again against the Bucs. New England special teams had four penalties on Thursday night, including an illegal block above the waist (Brandon Bolden), a neutral zone infraction (also Bolden), a false start (Joe Cardona) and an offensive holding (Nate Ebner). That’s 10 special teams penalties through five games.

“You take the win any way you can get it,” said defensive back and special teamer Jonathan Jones. “But like I said, it’s still early in the season. You have to look at those mistakes and continue to get better and improve. (You have to) limit the mistakes and the penalties as you continue, because it’s only going to hurt you.”