The last time the Patriots were at State Farm Stadium, the storyline of the night was Kyler Murray hurting his knee.

But also playing in that game was a future key piece of the Cardinals' defense – although he was with the Patriots, far from being the defensive player he has become.

Mack Wilson Sr. was in the first of his two seasons with the Patriots, and he played 11 snaps that night against the Cardinals. All 11 were on special teams. But last year he became more important to then-Patriots coach Bill Belichick, helping as both an off-ball linebacker and as an edge rusher, and he has fully fleshed out that kind of role with the Cardinals as he prepares to play his former team for the first time.

"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't looking forward to playing them," Wilson said. "We still have to take each day, and I really need to control my emotions going out there against them. But it will be fun seeing some of the guys over there. It will be even better to get a win."

Wilson admitted he thought, with former linebackers coach Jerod Mayo taking over for Belichick, he'd be part of the rebuild. But the Patriots were moving on, and the Cardinals sold Wilson on a bigger, better role. This season Wilson has 67 tackles -- third on the team -- with four for loss, three sacks, a fumble recovery, an interception and four passes defensed.

"That was honestly one of my challenges going into the offseason and whatever team I was going to be with, was them using my athletic ability and using me in different ways that people didn't really know what I could do. Not too many teams knew I could rush the passer. They have been doing a good job implementing me in different situations. I just ask them to continue to load the plate."

-- Blake Gillikin is out, meaning the Cardinals will elevate practice squad punter Michael Palardy on Saturday for the game. Palardy has experience holding for kicks too – I'll have more in a story on Saturday. No Emari Demercado means the Cardinals lose their third-down back. Might that mean a Michael Carter elevation? Or might James Conner get more third-down work?

-- Palardy punted for the Patriots in 2022. Cardinals kicker Chad Ryland played for the Patriots last season. Special teams revenge games like this don't come along often.

-- It wasn't as if Isaiah Adams hadn't played at least some this season, having totaled 107 offensive snaps at both right and left guard the first 12 games of the season. But the rookie third-round pick still knew that last week – his first NFL start, at right guard, and an official move to first-string on the weekly depth chart – was something more.

"It was a dream come true," said Adams, who played every snap against the Seahawks. "Couldn't sleep the night before. But it was good to go against (Seahawks defensive lineman) Leonard Williams, seeing what that type of strength is like, and being out there with the guys in that type of environment too in a game that means so much."

Coach Jonathan Gannon emphasized he wasn't someone to put in rookies late in the season just to get them experience. He wants the best players, so Adams outperformed incumbent Trystan Colon to get the playing time (remembering that starter Will Hernandez is out for the season with a knee injury.)

"I saw myself growing a lot," Adams said. "Whatever the team needed, I think coaches were aware."

-- Since his career high is 133 yards, it is unlikely that tight end Trey McBride gains 149 yards receiving this Sunday. But that is all he needs to reach 1,000 for the season, which would make him only the second Cardinals tight end ever with 1,000 yards receiving.

-- Speaking of McBride, he has been dealing with a knee injury that landed him on the injury report this week apparently from something that happened in practice – Gannon said it was not from the Seahawks game. McBride is good to go, however, without an injury designation for the game.

-- All season, rookie wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. has been one of the wideouts with the least separation according to Next Gen Stats, and Michael Wilson is also in the top 10. But wide receivers coach/passing game coordinator Drew Terrell has an issue with the statistic in the first place.

"I think it's a goofy stat," Terrell said. "There are so many things that go into that. A guy could be running wide open the entire play and for whatever reason – the ball is late, the quarterback got hit, the ball is off line, he was third in the progression – by the time the ball gets to him there is no separation and the guy wasn't open. That irritates the hell out of me.

"Watch (the receiver) on film. Watch when he is matched up man-to-man. If he's not winning, we need to fix it. If he's winning, then at the point of the ball getting there there's no separation and you're measuring that, to me that's not always an accurate indication of what the wideout is doing."

-- Interceptions aren't good. But I thought Kyler Murray had a fascinating and blunt breakdown of what goes through his head after throwing one.

"You're out there on the field, you throw a pick, you're kind of, 'What the hell?'" Murray said. "You go through that phase – 'Sh**.' Then you might go to the sideline and look at the pictures, because they don't give you video, so you look at pictures – which is terrible – and then you have a second to dwell on it. Then you have to get over it."

-- Second-year Cardinals GM Monti Ossenfort spent 15 total years in the Patriots organization during the Bill Belichick era, and he was with them for four of their Super Bowl victories. His last job there was as director of college scouting, before leaving to take a job with the Tennessee Titans – his last stop before Arizona.

-- Budda Baker is coming off a career-high 18 tackles against the Seahawks, a total he said he had no idea about as the game was going on – "I'm just trying to get to the next play" – or even right after, given his anger about the loss.

"Then someone told me how many tackles I had," Baker said. "I was like, 'Sheesh.'"

-- Murray had a pair of huge TD runs earlier this season, against the 49ers and Chargers, that sparked victories. But the QB has been running much less of late, with three rushing attempts/scrambles or fewer in four of the last five games. They are 2-3 in such games this season, an improvement over the 0-8-1 mark he had previous.

The QB ground game could be in play Sunday, not only with Murray's runs but because of what Drake Maye is doing with the Patriots. At this point, Maye is averaging 9.1 yards per attempt running, a crazy-high stat that would surpass 2013 Michael Vick (8.5) for most yards per attempt for a QB in a season. Vick owns four of the top six per-attempt averages since 2000. The one other than Maye? Murray this season, at 7.7 (so far.)

-- That NFL Network Top 100 list that comes out in training camp, the one who everyone always asks who possibly could've voted for this? The NFLN employee was in the locker room on Friday, getting players to fill out their ballots (if they so chose to.)

-- James Conner, who had 90 yards rushing last week, needs just 70 to surpass three players – Terry Metcalf, John David Crow and Charley Trippi – and move into fifth place in all-time rushing yards for the franchise. Trippi is at 3,506; Conner at 3,437.

Conner needs just 137 yards with four games left to reach 1,000 and become only the third Cardinal all-time – joining Ottis Anderson (five times) and Edgerrin James (twice) to have at least two 1,000-yard rushing seasons.

-- The last word goes to Jonathan Gannon, when talking about Murray's struggles of late to pass when pressured.

"When people pressure you, you've got to make them pay."

See you Sunday.