Report: NFL Punishes Two Patriots After AFC Divisional Round

One New England Patriot got a little too physical with another player in last Sunday’s AFC Divisional Round win, so now he’s got to pay the price.

Trey Flowers, the Patriots pass rusher was fined with $20,054 for a low hit on Phillip Rivers during the third quarter of the playoff win in Foxboro. That play was also flagged at the time for a 15-yard roughing the passer infraction and now he’s been faced with the consequences.

Flowers wasn’t the only Patriots player who got fined. New England’s starting left tackle Trent Brown is also being ordered to pay the same amount for unnecessary roughness against the Chargers. 

Flowers wouldn’t think of this as some major distress, as he was able to total two quarterback hits and a sack in the win. Overall it was a good day for New England’s pass rush as Rivers was under duress for a majority of the contest. 

Now, Flowers and Patriots are focused on Sunday’s match when they face Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Championship. 

“He’s a great player,” Flowers said of Mahomes earlier this week. “He’s a playmaker. A guy who definitely can make plays [and] not the typical way as far as planting your feet or pushing him out of the pocket. He’s great out of the pocket. Keeping him in the pocket and he’s great in the pocket. He’s one of the guys that you just have to kind of contain him the best you can and try to out-execute him.”

He added: “We definitely understand this is a very explosive team. They’ve got a lot of explosive playmakers that can get the ball into the end zone in one play or they can push it down on a 12-play drive. It’s just one of the things that understanding how explosive they are and how they want to start fast and we just have to come in and match the intensity, match the execution and try to stop them.”

New England’s “ace up the sleeve” – their disguises pre-snap and try and fake coverages before falling into their normal sets for the play turned out to be a great idea. 

“Yeah, definitely. Just being able to mix [it] up with different looks; pre-snap, not allowing the quarterback to be comfortable and know what he’s looking at,” Flowers said. “Anytime you can make it uneasy on a quarterback or an offensive play caller not knowing what he’s looking at is always an advantage for us.”

The Patriots and Chiefs are no strangers to one another as they locked horns earlier this season back in Week 6. New England was able to win thanks to a last second field goal and Flowers had a pretty big role in that victory. The pass rusher was able to add seven tackles to his name with one coming for a loss. 

He’ll certainly strive for that same impact when these two teams kickoff the AFC Championship at 6:40 p.m. ET on CBS.