NFL Preview: Detroit Lions face New England Patriots live on Sky Sports from Gillette Stadium

The New England Patriots put their winning streak to another stern test as the Detroit Lions and their No 1 defence come to Gillette Stadium in Sunday’s first live Sky Sports game.

The 8-2 Patriots lead the way in the AFC on the back of six successive victories, the last two in particular being impressive statements coming against Denver and Indianapolis who figure to be right in the thick of things come the playoffs.

Detroit on the other hand head to New England after a tough loss against Arizona, who now hold the NFL’s best record, and although they’re still on top of the NFC North they’re level on 7-3 with the Green Bay Packers, who could eclipse them on Sunday.

The Lions’ NFL-best defence has already shackled Aaron Rodgers once this season, but they’ll need to do the same to Tom Brady and show a big upturn in offensive output to match the Pats.

Here’s some of the big keys to this match-up…

Transformers

Live NFL

Pats head coach Bill Belichick has shown his brilliance in the last couple of weeks as New England took down two big AFC rivals in consecutive 22-point wins – but the manner of those could not have been more different as they savaged Denver through the air then ran all over Indy on the ground.

Brady threw 53 passes against Denver and went for 333 yards and four touchdowns, but it was unheralded running back Jonas Gray who got the keys to the offence against Indy as the team ran 44 times against 30 passes. Gray finished with a 200-yard day and four touchdowns. So good luck Detroit in preparing for New England’s offence.

Toothless Lions

The Lions’ NFL-leading rush defence is restricting teams to just 68.8 yards a game, while overall they lead the way with just 15.6 points and 290.3 yards allowed per outing. That may force Brady to air it out again, which he’s had no problem with in throwing 20 TDs in their last six wins. As mentioned though Detroit managed to bottle up Rodgers and the Packers in a win earlier in the season.

Detroit’s main problem though is their offence, which has failed to score more than 25 points since week one, averaging just 17 points since. Matt Stafford has been poor but the run game has been worse, ranking just 30th with 80 yards a game and while having Reggie Bush back may help, the Broncos and Colts managed just 62 yards on 34 carries between them in the last two against the Pats.

Gray day?

Jonas Gray was the most wanted pick-up on any Fantasy Football waiver wire after his miraculous outburst against the Colts, but he may not have such a huge role to play this week. Firstly, he made the cardinal sin of oversleeping and missing a team meeting, which saw him sent home from the team facility this week.

Former RB LeGarrette Blount also returned after a spell with Pittsburgh and he could get some work straightaway given he’s familiar with the offence and had a career year last season, including a similar four-touchdown day against the Colts in the playoffs. Detroit’s run-stopping prowess may also make Belichick get the more elusive Shane Vereen more involved catching passes out of the backfield.

Home comforts

New England’s home record is more than impressive, they’ve the longest active home winning streak with 14 in a row and are in a stretch of going 43-3 overall. The wins come with an average 13-point margin as well and even their defence gets a boost as they limited Peyton Manning and Andrew Luck in recent weeks.

Lions QB Matt Stafford also has a poor 0-15 record on the road against teams with winning seasons as well, so that’s obviously a problem Detroit need to get over if they’re to progress as a team. Stopping Rob Gronkowski will be a big part of their game plan, he’s on the verge of becoming the first tight end to record ten TDs in four seasons with one more score.

What they said…

“The more of those guys that can be involved, the better. Who knows who it's going to be on a particular week? It's just too much pressure for an offense to have to go through one or two players the whole season. You're not going to be a very good offense,” Patriots QB Tom Brady.

"They've shown in spurts they have grit, they're tough, they come back, they fight you. When you get that kind of effort, you just have to work on execution and some things. We'll get better. I do think this team has the fortitude to be real resilient under disappointment,” Lions coach Jim Caldwell.

"We are the No. 1 defense. We've kind of earned that. Respect is not given in this league. It's earned. We've earned that and it's one of those games where you have to play like it and that's what it's going to boil down to."  Lions safety James Ihedigbo.

Watch the New England Patriots host the Detroit Lions LIVE on Sky Sports 2 HD from 5.30pm on Sunday.