What to watch for when the Patriots play the Lions

Here are seven storylines to follow when the Patriots travel to Ford Field to play the Detroit Lions in prime time on Sunday night.

FOXBORO – Seven storylines to follow when the 1-1 Patriots play the 0-2 Detroit Lions at Ford Field in prime time Sunday (8:20 p.m., NBC, WBZ-FM/98.5):

Hello, old friend – After his team missed the playoffs with a 9-7 record, thus ensuring the franchise’s 26th straight year without a postseason win, Lions general manager Bob Quinn – the Norwood High School product who broke into the NFL as a player personnel assistant with the hometown Patriots in 2000 and rose up the ranks of the organization to director of pro scouting prior to leaving in January 2016 – got defensive.

Quinn fired head coach Jim Caldwell and brought Patriots defensive coordinator Matt Patricia aboard as his successor.

Patricia had served on Bill Belichick’s staff since 2005 when he was brought aboard as Dante Scarnecchia’s assistant offensive line coach.

Members of Patricia’s coaching staff with Patriots ties include offensive line coach Jeff Davidson (who served as an assistant here from 1997-2004), quarterbacks coach George Godsey (an assistant from 2011-2013), defensive assistant Steve Gregory (a safety with the team in 2012-2013, he returned Mark Sanchez’s “butt fumble” 32 yards for a touchdown), head strength and conditioning coach Harold Nash Jr. (a member of Belichick’s staff from 2005-2015) and William Clay Ford minority coaching assistant/defense Billy Yates (a guard with the team from 2005-2008).

If you care to go back a football generation or few, Belichick has ties to the Lions. An assistant special teams coach with them in 1976, he was the team’s wide receivers coach in 1977.

Bl(o)untly speaking – In the NFL Network’s “America's Game” special on the Eagles’ Super Bowl win, running back LeGarrette Blount spoke candidly about how his second stint with the Patriots came to an end.

“The way things ended there was not to my liking,” Blount said. “I had told them how bad I wanted to be there and how much I wanted to stay there and I didn’t want to leave, and they couldn’t get a deal done for me. I just feel like they didn’t respect me at all.”

Blount exacted a huge measure of revenge by carrying the ball 14 times for a game-high 90 yards and a touchdown in Super Bowl LII. Having moved on from Philly to Detroit as an unrestricted free agent this past offseason, he would no doubt like another helping on Sunday night.

Through two games with the Lions, Blount has done next to nothing: 12 carries for 35 yards (2.9 yards per carry) and one catch for a 3-yard loss. He’ll be looking to up that production against a Patriots run defense that is allowing 135.5 yards per game (27th in the league), 4.7 per carry (25th in the league).

Other former Patriots players on the Lions roster include starting defensive tackle Ricky Jean Francois and backups Matt Cassel (quarterback), Marquis Flowers (linebacker) and Tavon Wilson (safety).

On the flip side, a couple of years after selecting him in the second round of the 2014 draft, Detroit was willing to ship linebacker Kyle Van Noy and a seventh-round pick in the 2017 draft to New England in October 2016 in exchange for a sixth-rounder in 2017. Van Noy didn’t fit in with the Lions, but he’s become a starter with the Patriots.

And backup offensive tackle LaAdrian Waddle was claimed off waivers by the Patriots from the Lions in December 2015. Originally signed by Detroit as a rooke free agent in 2013, Waddle spent nearly three seasons with the Lions before coming to New England where his value has only increased with Marcus Cannon hurt more than he’s healthy over the past couple of seasons.

Flash, Gordon – Acquired in a deal with Cleveland with a preexisting hamstring injury, Josh Gordon was listed as questionable for the game on Friday’s injury report and he’s had all of three practices with his new team.

Is Gordon healthy enough and do the Patriots feel he knows enough to be unleashed against the Lions on Sunday night?

The Detroit breakdown – Through two games, the Lions have allowed 359 yards on the ground (most in the league), 5.6 yards per carry (only Oakland, at 5.7, is worse) and three touchdowns.

While no one’s about to mistake the Patriots for a “ground and pound” offense (78 pass plays to 55 run plays through two games), perhaps they can establish some semblance of an attack against the Lions’ woeful run defense.

Third and wrong – During the course of last Sunday’s 31-20 loss at Jacksonville, the Patriots’ defense allowed the Jaguars, who’d gone just 4 for 13 in the previous week’s 20-15 win over the New York Giants, to convert 10-of-14 third-down opportunities, a 71.4-percent conversion rate.

Allowing opponents to convert at a clip of 48.0 percent, the Patriots’ third-down defense is tied for 28th in the league.

The Lions’ share of the work – Lions quarterbacks (starter Matthew Stafford and Cassel) have targeted wide receivers Golden Tatem, Kenny Golladay and Marvin Jones Jr. 66 times through two games.

Tate has caught 14 passes (in 28 targets) for 188 yards and one touchdown. Golladay has grabbed 13 passes (in 21 targets) for 203 yards and one TD and Jones has made eight receptions in 17 targets for 108 yards and a score.

That doesn’t bode well for a secondary that just had a starting cornerback (Eric Rowe) make an undrafted free agent in his second year (Keelan Cole) look like the second coming of Jerry Rice before getting benched in favor of Jason McCourty, who didn’t exactly distinguish himself, either.

Disrupt or disappear? – So, which Patriots’ defense shows up?

The one that pressured Deshaun Watson for much of the day, hitting him 12 times and sacking him on three occasions while he attempted 34 passes in the their 27-20 win over Houston on opening day or the one that didn’t get in Blake Bortles’ area code, hitting him just four times with no sacks while he stood in the pocket and picked them apart while throwing 45 times last Sunday?

Needless to say, the fact that end Trey Flowers is listed as doubtful for the game with the concussion he suffered last Sunday (the same goes for safety Patrick Chung) weakens the Patriots in a big way up front.