Some quick-hit thoughts on the Patriots’ prime time tilt against the Lions The broadcast operations and graphics departments of NBC’s Sunday Football certainly have their work cut out for them this week. The amount of narratives and angles littering their office white boards that must be crammed into dozens of statistical overlays and inter-play multimedia segments by Sunday must be staggering.However White Eric Rowe Jerseys , having already reached a full Belichick vs. Patricia saturation level, here are a few points of interest as Sunday Night’s contest approaches.The Patriots at Ford Field: 2-1The Patriots have made two regular season trips to Detroit’s Ford Field since it opened its doors in 2002. The first was an uninspiring 20-12 road victory over the Marty Mornhinweg-led Lions in November of the stadium’s inaugural season in which Tom Brady did not throw a touchdown and was intercepted by in the red zone by rookie cornerback Chris Cash. Fortunately for New England, rookie quarterback Joey Harrington was tremendously on-brand; throwing zero touchdowns while tripling Brady’s interception total.The Patriots’ last regular season trip to Detroit was a wild Thanksgiving affair in 2010. With six minutes left in the second quarter, a Maurice Morris touchdown gave the Lions an 11-point lead. From then on, Tom Brady began carving up Detroit’s defense like *Thanksgiving pun redacted*. Wes Welker and Deion Branch each hauled in a pair of touchdowns, rookie tight end Rob Gronkowski caught five balls for 65 yards, and newly-signed veteran kicker Shayne Graham — brought in following the demise of Stephen Gostkowski’s 56-game start streak due to a season-ending torn quad the week prior — was perfect on one field goal and six extra point attempts. When the dust settled, the Patriots left town with a 45-24 win.The Patriots were handed their first “L” at Ford Field last summer in week three of the preseason. While the “dress rehearsal” began smoothly, Julian Edelman’s ACL tear quickly put a damper on things. While the Patriots still came out on top in the box score (30-28), losing a starting wideout for the year in a preseason contest can never be categorized as anything other than a loss.A trio of concussionsEach defense experienced key personnel losses via concussion in week two. For New England, top edge defender Trey Flowers and safety Patrick Chung have been held out for practice this week, meaning the NFL regular season debuts of Derek Rivers and perhaps even JC Jackson could take place on Sunday evening. In Detroit, lock down cornerback Darius Slay has also been held out of practice while in the NFL’s concussion protocol. The team may have tipped their hand in regards to their feelings about Slay’s status for Sunday’s game by re-signing cornerback DeShawn Shead.The 6’2”, 215-pound Shead — a physical press corner who gained prominence in Seattle — signed a one-year deal with Detroit this offseason that guaranteed him $1.6 million and was worth up to $6.5 million. Surprisingly, the Lions cut him before week one. While his return could strictly be considered Slay-related, it could also speak volumes about the organization’s thoughts on 2017 second round pick Teez Tabor, who earned the first start of his NFL career last weekend in San Francisco Eric Rowe Jerseys 2019 , but was benched for a large portion of the contest for miscommunication issues.3rd down and wrongSunday’s game features a match up of two who units who simply aren’t getting the job done on third down. According to Pride of Detroit’s Jeremy Reisman, The Lions’ offense ranks 22nd in third down conversion percentage (34.5%) despite ranking 14th in yards-to-go on third down (6.83). In fact, through two games, the Lions are actually converting at a higher clip on third down and 15+ yards to go (2/5) than they are on third down and between 4-10 yards to go (5/13).On the flip side, the Patriots’ defense, in its typical bend-but-don’t-break fashion, have allowed a less-than-stellar 48% of third downs to be converted against them. That’s good for 28th in the league.A case for the ground gameThe Lions’ front seven has been porous — to say the least — as they’ve yielded 359 yards and three touchdowns on the ground to the Jets and 49ers through the season’s first two weeks. Former Patriot Ricky Jean Francois, who won a starting gig over former second round pick A’Shawn Robinson this summer, has struggled mightily to hold up at the point of attack — as has fellow free agent acquisition Sylvester Williams. According to Jeremy Reisman, the unit hasn’t been able to set the edge with any kind of consistency, and while rookie five-tech D’Shawn Hand has been a bright spot so far, teams have quickly adjusted and attacked other areas of the defensive line. Couple these factors with a linebacking core that hasn’t been able to shed blocks with regularity, and the stage is set for a flurry of heavy-personnel package deployment from the Patriots offense on Sunday evening. Look for Josh McDaniels to get Rex Burkhead and Sony Michel into a rhythm early and often.HalftimeLil Jon will be performing at half time. That is all.Follow Brian Phillips on Twitter @BPhillips_SB I was a senior in high school when the Patriots won their first championship, and I luckily got a chance to go to the parade. Well, it wasn’t really a parade, back then it was just a rally at City Hall Plaza. For various reasons, I hadn’t been to any of the 11 White LaAdrian Waddle Jerseys , yes 11, parades since. This year, I decided to go, and my parents came with me. You couldn’t have asked for a better day. Sure, it’s February, but it was 65 and sunny. Some of the players were in hoodies, but a lot were in t-shirts too, and a few even went shirtless. We all expected Rob Gronkowski to lose his shirt, but Jacob Hollister and Dwayne Allen losing theirs was a little unexpected. Also, who know Allen was such a beast?The parade route was totally jammed. The commuter rail was leaving would be travelers at stations because they were too full to accept any more riders. While there have been no official estimates yet, the MBTA said it was, “almost certainly the highest ridership ever seen on the network.” Boston Police also estimated the crowd at well over a million people. People are not sick of winning. Were there some stupid people there? Of course. You put that many people tougher, and you’re going to find some dummies. But, for the most part, the crowds were fantastic.The people in my area were throwing a mini football (with a Saints logo on it) back and forth across the street. When it didn’t make it, a dad would lift his little girl over the railing and she’d run to get it. Much to the delight of the crowds, and the police LaAdrian Waddle Jerseys 2019 , waiting for the parade to start. There was also a boy on his dad’s shoulders close to me, and when he caught the ball once, he got a nice hand, when he caught another pass, the crowd went nuts. We engaged in small talk, talking about our families, or the game, or what lies ahead for the Patriots. We had almost two hours to kill, after all. As the duck boats approached, you could feel the energy from the crowd start to build. When Robert Kraft’s boat, the first boat, went by, with his yelling to the crowd while holding a Lombardi trophy, the crowd was as loud as any game at Gillette this year. There were moments that may have been more memorable than others. It’s always cool to see Tom Brady up close, and Rob Gronkowski partying is a sight to be seen. There were the defensive backs, led by the McCourty twins, blasting music and dancing.The offensive line White David Andrews Jerseys , with a shirtless David Andrews and Trent Brown holding up a toy goat. Julian Edelman, who was greeted with a fantastic “MVP” chant, and the linebackers with Dont’a Hightower and Kyle Van Noy taking turns pumping up the crowd. The most memorable moment for me was seeing a friend of mine, who was on one of the boats. It was cool, in a crowd of over a million people, to share a quick moment with him before his boat continued past.But the coolest part of all, was to be able to experience it with my parents. Because of our season tickets, the Patriots have been a family affair for as long as I can remember. To be able to share the moments with the people I’ve shared so many other moments with was pretty special. My sister-in-law was there too. She’s the one responsible for most of the pictures you see here, and it was really fun experiencing it with her too. Hopefully for the next one, the whole family is able to come. Imagine another city just assuming there would be another championship parade at some point? My goodness are we lucky to be Boston sports fans. So the parade was a ton of fun, and if you’ve never been to one, I strongly recommend it. But don’t go in with some random people and get liquored up and do stupid things, like some people did yesterday. Instead, go in with people that you care about, and people that care as much about the team as you do. You’ll have a lot more fun that way.Pat is the host of The Patriot Nation PodcastInteract with him on Twitter @plane_pats
