The Patriots are heading to Deutschland for a showdown with the Detroit Lions at Allianz Arena in Munich on Sunday, coming off losses to NFC North foes in two of their last three games.

The question for head coach Mike Vrabel is who is getting on the plane with him, both literally and figuratively, for Sunday's game in Germany. New England made the 8-hour flight to Munich with injury question marks all over its roster after another handful of injuries in last week's loss to the Packers. This season, the Patriots are one of the most injured rosters in the NFL, and unfortunately, that remains a top story with the team heading into Week 10. So, who literally traveled with the team to Germany?

On Wednesday, the Patriots ruled out starting CB Carlton Davis III (knee), RB TreVeyon Henderson (illness), and C/G Ben Brown (knee) – they didn't make the trip. The statuses of star WR A.J. Brown (ankle/knee) and top RB Rhamondre Stevenson (knee) are also unknown. Brown returned to practice in a limited capacity on Wednesday and traveled, which is a positive sign, while Stevenson made the trip but sat out Wednesday's session before the team's overnight flight to Munich.

Figuratively speaking, the Patriots are at a crossroads after losses to the Bears and Packers over the last three weeks. The league is filled with teams who are around .500 this time of year, including Super Bowl favorites like the Rams (5-4) and Seahawks (5-4). Now is the time when teams start to separate from the pack, whether in a positive or negative direction, and the Patriots need to decide which direction their season is going.

During their run to Super Bowl LX, the 2025 squad had terrific team chemistry. It was palpable. You could feel it in the locker room, at practice, and on game day. As a head coach who is excellent at building a positive team culture, Vrabel seemed aware that recreating those vibes would be challenging. That's not to say that the team rapport has soured, but that was a special group, and this locker room needs to find its own magic. On Monday, Vrabel hit on that very topic.

"I think that when you have the most success is when everybody has the same mentality and that they see it the same way. They see it the same way that we have to do all the things that come with winning, and that's the preparation, that's the connection that you have to make with guys that are in there," Vrabel said. "The identity that shows when we win, the ability to take care of the ball, the ability to create turnovers, to get off the field, to play sound and complementary special teams. That's all-encompassing."

The Patriots need to find that secret sauce across the pond. Playing in Europe isn't easy, with long flights and a six-hour time change that messes with your body clock. Frankly, you have to want to be there. That said, it can also be galvanizing to spend four days on the road as a team and come home with a win. Hopefully, we'll look back on the Munich trip as a turning point in the Patriots season.

Along with playing another tough NFC North opponent, we're going to learn a lot about the Patriots mettle on Sunday. Can they pick themselves up and come together in Munich this week, which could be a great team-building experience? As many of you know, this rah-rah stuff isn't typically my jam. Still, before we get to the Xs and Os, it felt important to set the stage for a possible inflection point in the Patriots season.

Let's preview the chess match between the Patriots and Lions at Allianz Arena in Munich, Germany, on Sunday.

Offense Key: How Will the Lions Man Coverage Defense Game Plan for Drake Maye?

Starting with the Patriots offense, we broke down the coverages that have challenged Maye in After Further Review earlier this week.

Maye has seen a 53.4% split-safety coverage rate in losses to the Seahawks, Jaguars, and Packers. The Pats QB has thrown five interceptions while producing -0.14 EPA per play against split-safety zones in those three matchups. Now, those are top-10 pass defenses, so some of those struggles are opponent-driven, but reading the middle of the field versus quarters and Cover-6 structures is the final frontier in Maye's development.

That said, Maye will now face a Lions defense that ranks 26th in pass EPA. On paper, it's an easier matchup for the shorthanded Patriots offense against Lions DC Kelvin Sheppard's group. Along with some struggles this season, Detroit plays man coverage at the tenth-highest rate (37.6%) and ranks ninth in single-high safety rate, with lots of Cover-1 and Cover-3 (55.9%). More specifically, the Lions line up their corners at an average depth of just 5.0 yards, the fifth-shortest depth in the league, so this is an in-your-face secondary.

Above, the Lions run one of their staple man-blitz schemes, using a twist blitz by the linebackers to land a QB hit that produces an incomplete third-down pass. Based on their usual tendencies, one would expect the Patriots to prep their man-blitz beaters for Sunday. However, Maye has mostly picked apart post-safety coverages, which present him with 1-on-1 matchups to hunt downfield.

Due to their blitz-man struggles, the Lions have dropped their man coverage rate by nearly 10 percentage points this season. Therefore, Maye could see more of their coverage off-speed pitches like drop-8 schemes (above). Although the Lions pass defense has mostly struggled, Detroit ranks third in sacks (27) and 11th in pressure rate (37.1%), so the Lions pass rush can impact games.

If the Lions stick to their post-safety coverages, Maye could be in for a big day. The Vikings put some things on tape two weeks ago that the Patriots can replicate. For example, Minnesota hunted matchups for its tight ends up the seams by using bunch formations, which are tricky to sort out in man coverage. The Vikings also moved the pocket, creating wide-open zone voids in Detroit's Cover-3 cloud schemes with condensed bunch formations paired with boot actions.

Because it's a man-coverage-heavy scheme, the Lions also rank 22nd in scramble yards per carry allowed. In the clip above, you see some pre-snap confusion from the Lions defense, with two defenders matching the Vikings shift. Detroit then plays the down in Cover-1 hole, with one linebacker as a "rat," or free player, in the middle of the man-coverage scheme. Murray is able to escape the pocket, and with all the man coverage defenders downfield, it's a big chunk.

Ultimately, the Patriots offense's injuries will be difficult to manage, with lead back Rhamondre Stevenson added to the lengthy injury list. My guess is the Lions will test the Pats backup running backs in pass protection by sending early blitzes, which could create issues. That's why moving Maye around, whether that's by design or him scrambling, could come into play for New England without their best pass-blocking back.

Along those same lines, the Patriots will likely start their sixth different offensive line combination on Sunday. The Pats could activate veteran C/G Greg Van Roten from injured reserve, with Van Roten inline to start at left guard. New England's projected starting five would be LT Will Campbell, LG Greg Van Roten, C Jared Wilson, RG Matt Pryor, and RT Morgan Moses in Munich.

The Patriots shorthanded offense has been in some tough spots lately, but Sunday's matchup against the Lions' defense could be a juicy one for Maye.

Defense Key: "Cover-4, I don't like my in-cuts and seams against that." - Peyton Manning

Moving to the other side of the ball, everyone has theories about why the Patriots defense has regressed, allowing a Vrabel-era high of 45 points vs. the Packers last week.

After speaking my piece on that earlier in the week, let's turn the page to a Lions offense that presents a huge challenge. Detroit is scoring 27.8 points per game, fifth in the NFL, while ranking in the top half of the league in both pass EPA (fourth) and rush EPA (12th). The Lions offense has star power with QB Jared Goff, RB Jahmyr Gibbs, receiver duo Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jameson Williams, and stud LT Penei Sewell, who might be the best offensive lineman in football. And a great scheme from OC Drew Petzing.

Petzing's unique presentations to protect his core concepts have always impressed. Although the Lions lost Ben Johnson to the Bears head job, Detroit is every bit as tricky and aggressive on fourth down. Petzing rolls out unique wrinkles, trick plays, wildcat formations, and the base offense is similar to Johnson's system. The head of the snake is the Lions zone-based run game led by Gibbs, an elite home-run threat. Detroit runs outside zone at the fifth-highest rate, generating the NFL's best explosive run rate (14.3%).

Goff has also blossomed into one of the NFL's most efficient passers, ranking sixth in EPA per drop-back. The Lions rack up yards after the catch by hitting St. Brown and Williams on the move while running digs or crossers. This season, Goff is targeting the middle of the field at the third-highest clip (35.9%) and ranks eighth in EPA per drop-back on those throws (+0.33). However, there's a blueprint to slow down Goff if you can take away throws between the numbers.

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When he faces quarters, or Cover-4, Goff's EPA per drop-back drops to 21st among 33 qualified quarterbacks (-0.12). The reason is that quarter coverages are built to take away the intermediate-middle, Goff's bread-and-butter. During a ManningCast years ago, Peyton Manning dropped this bar: "Cover-4, I don't like my in-cuts and seams against that." For Goff, quarters coverage has the same effect it did when the Pats used it to limit Manning.

For example, the Packers nearly intercepted Goff by running their poach quarters schemes. In poach, the backside corner (Christian Gonzalez for NE) matches the outside receiver like it's man coverage, freeing up the two-deep safeties to clamp down on in-breakers. Detroit runs their staple double digs from a stack alignment to Goff's right, and Packers S Evan Williams jumps the inside dig and nearly intercepts the pass.

Miami also had success with their quarter-based calls. Above, the Lions run the Yankee concept, with two crossing routes intersecting downfield. The Dolphins quarter-quarter-half coverage structure causes the crossers to nearly collide downfield, and Goff has to check it down.

When the Lions run-actions are creating open voids for in-breaking routes, Detroit is tough to stop offensively. They'll likely have some out-breaking change-ups like flood concepts and deep outs, but you can bait Goff into mistakes by muddying the middle of the field or forcing check-downs, while the Lions QB won't create offense out of structure as a stationary pocket passer.

The Patriots need a bounce-back performance from their defense in Munich, and there's a clear blueprint against Goff this season that New England can duplicate.

Key Matchups

LT Will Campbell/RT Morgan Moses vs. Lions EDGE Aidan Hutchinson

Unlike other top pass-rushers, Hutchinson moves around the Lions defensive front. The Lions star favors rushing over the left tackle slightly, lining up over the left side on 53.6% of his snaps, but RT Morgan Moses will also see him some (42.9%). Hutchinson has a rare blend of first-step explosiveness, a high motor, and rush sequencing, using a bull rush, hand swipes, and a spin move to rack up 50 total pressures (second-most in the NFL). The Pats will need a plan with extra attention to keep Hutchinson from taking over.

NCB Marcus Jones vs. Lions WR Amon-Ra St. Brown

I'm interested to see how the Patriots game-plan St. Brown, who is one of my favorite receivers. He technically aligns out wide more than in the slot because of the Lions condensed formations out of heavy groupings, but St. Brown runs in-breaking routes 50.9% of the time, with the third-highest target share in the league behind only Jaxon Smith-Njigba and CeeDee Lamb (32.1%). My guess is Jones will run across the field with St. Brown while the Patriots use their safeties to jump crossing routes over the middle.

RG Matt Pryor/LG Greg Van Roten vs. Lions DT Alim McNeil

McNeil is an underrated interior rusher who ranks second among defensive tackles with 34 total pressures. McNeil is a bit heavier, but his stocky frame, power, and explosiveness remind me a little of Milton Williams. With uncertainty at guard for the Patriots, McNeil is the potential mismatch worth highlighting.

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