FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — So here’s a dirty little secret about the Patriot Way.
More often than not, Bill Belichick’s genius can be distilled to this simple coaching point: Limit your mistakes, and let your opponents beat themselves.
And here at Gillette Stadium, on a crispy, sunny October afternoon, the NFL schedule makers couldn’t have picked a better matchup for New England.
Here came the Detroit Lions, with their illustrious history of in-game incompetence. Here came Dan Campbell’s team, rolling into town like degenerate gamblers, banking on the league’s most forgiving defense, a new kicker that Lions fans still haven’t met and a quarterback who seems to have a bad habit involving back-breaking turnovers.