The New England Patriots (1-3) take on the Detroit Lions (1-3) at Gillette Stadium on Sunday and will have their hands full with a surprisingly good offense that is currently ranked No. 1 in the NFL.
However, the Patriots may be getting a big break as the Lions could be without star wideout Amon-Ra St. Brown and elite running back D’Andre Swift. Tight end T.J. Hockenson and center Frank Ragnow are also both banged up, but they returned to practice on Thursday.
Without further ado, let’s get into this week’s keys for the game.
Force Jared Goff to beat you
Without Swift or St. Brown, the Lions would rely heavily on Hockenson, Josh Reynolds, and Jamaal Williams to keep their hopes alive. Granted, St. Brown returned to practice on Friday. So there’s still a chance he could end up playing.
The Lions are going into this game with the best offense coupled with one of the worst defenses the game has seen in a while.
Although Goff is looking like his old self thus far, Belichick has faced him and shut him down before. The Patriots will need to force Goff to beat them, and to do so, they’ll need to bait him into making bad decisions and throwing into tight windows.
The Patriots offense will not be able to keep up with the Lions in a shootout, if Jones isn’t playing. After last week’s performance, there’s hope that the Patriots defense can feast on Goff’s mistakes and decision-making. Look for a lot of disguised packages over the typical base defense they have been running in the first few weeks to keep Goff guessing.
Throwback football
The Patriots will probably be rolling out Bailey Zappe for this game, as Brian Hoyer has since went on IR and won’t be available to return until at least Week 9. I firmly believe the Lions are still the Lions and Zappe can beat this team. So even if Jones is 75-85 percent healthy, it would still be smarter to roll with the kid and win the game by playing throwback football.
Yup, good old-fashioned smashmouth football should be the play here.
The Patriots can keep this game on theme with the old school jerseys by relying on the run game. Rhamondre Stevenson and Damien Harris should be in for a monster game against a poor defense, and with the Patriots ranked as one of the most efficient running teams in the league, they should have no problems running it right at the Lions.
As we saw last year, an elite running game is a rookie QB’s best friend, and it should take the pressure off of Zappe enough that he can manage the game and get solid reps in. If the Patriots ask too much of him, it could lead to them falling to 1-4.
Running it heavily will also allow us to get a great look at Cole Strange and the zone blocking scheme at a higher volume, and it would take the pressure off of Jakobi Meyers potentially coming back too soon from his injury. Lil’Jordan Humphrey and DeVante Parker can play out wide to assist with blocking duties.
Red zone efficiency
This game is a perfect practice for the Patriots offense. An early test against a terrible defense in a must-win game is where this team may shine in the red zone. To win this game, they’ll need to play excellent defense, but for the love of everything, please don’t win 10-3.
Let’s keep it exciting.
I get Zappe is young, but he threw for 62 touchdowns in college for a reason. So why not get your offensive weapons some practice with new concepts that Matt Patricia and the team installed this offseason?
The Patriots are averaging just over two red zone trips per game right now, when they were closer to four per game last season. With that being said, we haven’t seen the red zone offense yet, but in order to win this game, the Patriots will need to capitalize on every single red zone trip, as the Lions can score in a flash. Scoring 14-20 points will not be enough unless coach Bill Belichick can form a masterclass and shut down the league’s top offense by holding them to less than 10 points.
