–The last time these two teams met in the regular season was in 2014 at Gillette Stadium when the Pats won 34-9. Tom Brady threw for 349 yards, two touchdowns and one interception.
–Head coach Bill Belichick coached with Detroit Lions in 1976 and 1977. He got his coaching start in 1975 with the Baltimore Colts.
–Lions head coach Matt Patricia was a longtime Patriots assistant from 2004-2017. He coached the offensive line, safeties and linebackers before becoming defensive coordinator in 2012. He served in that capacity until 2017.
–Lions quarterbacks coach George Godsey, offensive line coach Jeff Davidson and strength and conditioning coach Harold Nash also served as Patriot assistants.
–Tight end Rob Gronkowski has mastered the art of answering questions in the Belichick way in his ninth season when asked what it would be like to play against Patricia – the Patriots former defensive coordinator.
“It’s the NFL. There’s guys, there’s coaches, every single year, basically every game, where you play and you’ve been on their team before, you’ve been on their side before. It happens all the time. It happened with Houston, and you’ve just got to go out and execute. It’s all about execution. You can know what they’re going to do, but if you don’t go out and you don’t out-perform the other team, it just doesn’t matter,” Gronkowski said.
BY THE NUMBERS: 19 – Number of catches newly acquired wide receiver Josh Gordon has since 2015. Gordon had his best year in 2013 when he had 87 catches for 1,646 yards. He had seven catches, 151 yards and one touchdown in a game against the Patriots when Gordon was with the Browns.
