1.
Tom Brady returns after serving a four-game suspension. As of Sunday, it will be 630 days since the 2014 AFC Championship Game, from which the Deflategate allegations stemmed.
Brady has won 172 career regular-season games since becoming the Patriots' starting quarterback in Week 3 of 2001, while the Browns have won 175 games over the last 29 seasons played between 1985 and 2016 (Browns were out of the NFL in 1996-98). That doesn't include Brady's 22 career playoffs wins.
3.
Rob Gronkowski has just one reception on 15 routes run (6.7 percent) this season. In his first six seasons, Gronkowski got a reception on 17 percent of his routes run. Overall, Gronkowski has 66 career touchdowns, which is two shy of Stanley Morgan (67 offensive, 1 punt) for the most in Patriots history.
4.
The Patriots have yet to throw an interception in the first four games on 114 attempts, one of four teams without a pick this year. The Patriots have never gone the first five games of a season without throwing an interception.
5. Will the Patriots' offensive approach trend away from the running game with Brady back? Through four games, the club is using a designed run on 48 percent of its plays, the second-highest rate in the NFL behind the Cowboys (49 percent). By comparison, the Patriots ranked 25th in that department last year at 35 percent. Brady's return is expected to have the Patriots trending more toward the pass, but how much remains to be seen.
6.
The Browns have held a lead in the second half of three games this season, but have lost them all. They are tied with Chargers for the most losses of that kind this season.
<article class="ad-300"></article>7. Brady is 5-0 in his career when facing an 0-4 team or worse. He’s thrown 19 passing touchdowns with just three interceptions while the Patriots have won by an average of 25.8 points per game. In two of those games, Brady threw six passing touchdowns each.
8. Browns running back
Isaiah Crowell ranks second in the NFL with 394 rushing yards
[2nd to Blount], the most by a Browns player through four team games since Jim Brown had 476 to start the 1965 season.
9.
Brady has completed 59.4 percent of his passes against the Browns in his career (over six games), his second-worst against any opponent (58.3 vs Ravens). Brady has completed only 53.6 percent of his passes in two career games in Cleveland.
10. After a quarter of the season, the Patriots are 3-1, and history tells us they will keep up the pace. Since 2001, the Patriots are 139-41 in the final 12 games of a season, by far the best record in the NFL, 16 more wins than the next-highest team (Steelers).
