Patriots head to Munich short-handed as Lions scouting report flags offensive injuries

The Patriots take a 5-4 record and a growing injury list to Munich for Sunday's game against the Detroit Lions. The scouting report from Detroit's side boils down to one tension. New England's front seven can slow almost anyone, while an offense missing linemen, running backs and receivers is struggling to hold up its end.

In its breakdown, Pride Of Detroit calls the pass rush and run defense the team's biggest strength and offensive injuries its biggest weakness. The numbers back up the first point. New England has 25 sacks, and Elijah Ponder has 7.5 of them. Opponents are averaging 3.9 yards per carry, and only one run all season has gone longer than 20 yards. The secondary looks less solid. The Patriots are allowing a 67.5 percent completion rate, have given up 32 completions of 20 or more yards, and allowed 372 passing yards to Green Bay last week.

The injury list on offense is long. Starting guards Mike Onwenu and Alijah Vera-Tucker are on injured reserve. Sportsnaut reported that Ben Brown, who was filling in on the interior, will miss the Lions game. Rhamondre Stevenson is still being evaluated for a knee injury after leaving the Packers loss. Left tackle Will Campbell, cornerback Carlton Davis III and running back TreVeyon Henderson are also uncertain. A.J. Brown's ankle has limited him to three games, and Romeo Doubs is on IR until after the bye. That leaves DeMario Douglas, the team leader with 434 yards and four touchdowns, as Drake Maye's main target. Maye has 18 touchdown passes and 11 interceptions, a total that ties for the league lead, and he threw three of those picks against Green Bay.

What it means for Sunday

New England has alternated wins and losses over the past five weeks, and that stretch ended with a 45-27 home loss to the Packers. The Patriots have outscored opponents by just four points all season, 211 to 207. They are 2-3 away from Foxborough. Two of those three losses were lopsided, 35-6 at Jacksonville and 45-27 against Green Bay, which suggests the margins get thin when the roster is short. The matchup to watch is Detroit's run game, led by Jahmyr Gibbs, against a Patriots front that has been very hard to run on. Pride Of Detroit noted that Gibbs ran for only 98 yards combined in Detroit's two losses.

On this site's game board, the Lions are favored by 2.5 points across 12 venues. Novig has Detroit at -144 on the moneyline and New England at +138. Novig's spread price on the Patriots at +2.5 is +113, while Pinnacle offers the best number anywhere at +3, priced -112. That extra half-point is the main difference between venues on the spread. The total is 50.5 at Novig, and DraftKings has the highest under at 51.5, priced -120. Sportsbook hold ranges from about 3 to 5 percent across the markets, so the venues are close together.

A close spread fits a team whose defense keeps games competitive but whose offense now depends on backups at several spots. If the front seven slows Gibbs and Maye protects the ball, New England can win. If not, Detroit's passing game is the kind that has caused this secondary problems. Kickoff is Sunday on Fox. More on the season is on the Patriots team page.