Relative to their first four games, the Patriots defense issued an impressive response on Thursday night in the face of its self-made adversity.
It almost didn’t make sense in that context. If the Patriots couldn’t get it right after six months, how would it improve a unit that was surrendering 32 points per game in just four days?
Interestingly, Devin McCourty and Duron Harmon shared a nearly identical answer to that question. They were backed against the wall, and they were the only ones who were responsible for fixing the woes that had them ranked near the bottom of the league in almost every meaningful statistical category.