While the Patriots defense received the brunt of the criticism after Friday night’s preseason shootout against Philly, a 42-35 Pats win, running back Stevan Ridley will get his fair share of negative feedback this week.
The fourth year running back has shown flashes of brilliance during his Foxboro tenure, but his fumbling issues don’t seem to be going away anytime soon. Ridley coughed up the football again in the preseason game against Philly. The miscue came on his seventh carry of the night and occurred in the red zone.
“We always talk about ball-security,” Patriots head coach Bill Belichick said this past weekend. “Taking care of the ball, there’s nothing that correlates more to winning and losing than the turnovers so that’s always a high priority for us. We never want the ball out.”
Ridley has been benched by Belichick for stretches during the regular season and postseason in the past for his ball control issues as he has had eight fumbles over the past two seasons.
Follow Metro Boston sports editor Matt Burke on Twitter: @BurkeMetroBOS
