FOXBORO — Defensively, the Patriots never changed their goals.
They stripped it down, sure, but during a string of improved performances, the Patriots reinstalled their preferred elements of disguise because the end game remained the same.
“You can’t change goals because then you’re just making it easy for yourself,” safety Duron Harmon said. “Obviously, the goals we want to attain were hard. You’ve just got to work harder to get to them.”
As the Patriots coughed up the most points (32 per game), total yards (456.8) and passing yards (324) in the NFL through four weeks, they griped over communication while running a defense that couldn’t have been any simpler.