Asked this morning about preparing to face the Eagles’ front four in Super Bowl LII, Patriots coach Bill Belichick interrupted and said, “It’s a lot more than four. I wish it was four. It’s about eight, nine.”
But when he got to talking about the specific players on the Eagles’ defensive line, it was one who stood out: Fletcher Cox.
“Cox is as good as anybody in the league at his position,” Belichick said. “He’s a very disruptive player, hard to block, run, pass, no matter what it is, good edge rush, and they come hard every play, those guys come hard every play. There’s no plays off so you have to block them hard every play.”
Belichick said the Eagles’ front is not easy to game plan for.
“It’s a very disruptive group, hard to run against, hard to throw against, and they’re well coached, very instinctive in their screens and plays like that that you think will take the edge of the pass rush, don’t look as good as you think -- when you run them they don’t look as good as you think they will,” Belichick said. “Draws, screens, play action, they blow those plays up too. They have a lot of good players. They have good inside rushers, good outside rushers.”
Keeping that line off Tom Brady will be a tall order for the Patriots.