FOXBORO -- In 2010, no team in the NFL was better when it came to takeaways than the Patriots. In 2011, it’s a different story.

Last season, the Patriots defense had an utterly ridiculous +28 takeaway ratio, finishing the year with 25 interceptions and 13 fumbles recovered while only giving the ball away 10 times (five interceptions and five fumbles). During the regular season, that allowed New England to mask some of its overall defensive deficiencies, including the fact that the Patriots had the 30th ranked pass-defense and a historically bad third-down defense.

Through eight games last season, the Patriots were already at +5 in turnover margin, and would quickly be on their way to that +28, as they turned the ball over just once the rest of the regular season. This season, the Patriots are straight up even after eight games, with 14 takeaways (10 interceptions and four fumbles) and 14 giveaways (10 interceptions and four fumbles). That puts them tied for 15th with the Cowboys. (By way of comparison, the Lions, 49ers and Packers are the Top 3 at +13, +12 and +11, respectively. Remarkably, the Steelers have the worst ratio in the league at -11.)

For the Patriots, their giveaways have come in bunches -- 12 of their 14 turnovers have come in three games. Meanwhile the same has been true of their takeaways -- the Patriots had four takeaways (two fumbles, two interceptions) against the Chargers, two (a pair of interceptions) against the Raiders and another two (one fumble, one interception) against the Cowboys.

Yet the takeaways aren’t coming with the same frequency as they did in 2010. What are some of the reasons behind New England’s turnover turnaround this year? On defense, Sam Monson of Pro Football Focus says there is two statistical reasons the Patriots are forcing fewer turnovers this season than last year.

“Last season, the Patriots cornerbacks combined for 26 passes defensed. They got eight picks, with seven of them coming from Devin McCourty,” Monson said of the Patriots, who are -8 in the takeaway department in their three losses. “This season, McCourty has struggled and the corner group has only notched nine passes defensed. They’ve got just five picks on top of that, all from Kyle Arrington.

“Another stat to suggest they’re not as close in coverage -- last season, the Patriots corners allowed 471 yards after the catch all season as a group. This season already they’ve allowed 387. They’re also all being beaten for bigger averages than last season. McCourty is giving up 13.8 yards per reception this season -- last season it was just 10.7. The only exception to that is Arrington, who has actually gone from 15.3 to 14.8.

“I think when you look at the numbers for the cornerbacks in particular you can see that they’re just not close enough to make plays on the football. They’re being beaten far worse than they were last season, and that will cost you big plays.”

On the other side of the ball, Tom Brady is having an uncharacteristically bad season when it comes to interceptions. He has already thrown 10 picks, and is on pace to surpass his career high of 14, which he has done three different times. It’s a long way from last season, where Brady set an NFL record by going 335 consecutive pass attempts without an interception before getting picked in the 2011 season-opener in Miami.

Many of Brady’s picks have been tipped balls -- four of his interceptions were tipped by defensive players and two were tipped by teammates, including a catchable ball deflected by tight end Aaron Hernandez near the goal line in a Week 5 win over the Jets.

“I’m sure Tom would like to maybe have a couple of those back,” Belichick said. “[When] a quarterback has a good arm like Tom does and is accurate, sometimes you feel like you can get a ball into a receiver and a lot of times he does, and sometimes he doesn’t.”

“I’ve just got to make better decisions,” Brady said. “Some teams have gotten their hands on some balls and tipped some balls. Every team does that...You throw the ball and they get their hand on it and make a play. It’s just part of the game and part of football. You try to not have it happen as an offense; when it does, you just move on.

“I don’t feel like we can’t figure it out,” Brady added. “We’ve showed we can produce. We’ve made plenty of good plays. There’s no doubt about that. It’s just that we’ve got to eliminate some of the ones that are holding us back, namely the turnovers.”