It’s tough to get too charged up about Sunday’s Patriots game

All right, so most of those are silly. But that’s what happens when a 4-7 team on a three-game losing streak visits Gillette Stadium to take on a 2-9 Patriots team that has lost four straight, including the last two in hideous fashion, the mind tends to wander from the harsh reality.

Really, there are only three legitimate questions that matter. Will Belichick again cook up a scheme to flummox Chargers star quarterback Justin Herbert, who has thrown 20 touchdowns against just six interceptions this season but is 0-2 with 2 touchdowns, 4 interceptions, and a dismal 52.8 rating in his career against the Patriots?

Can Bailey Zappe, the presumed starter after reportedly taking the majority of snaps at quarterback in practice this past week, find any success throwing the ball against a Chargers pass defense ranked dead last, allowing 280 yards per game?

And most important, can the Patriots both play well and lose? Watching them embarrass themselves on offense and special teams week after week has grown tiresome and repetitive . . . but it is of the essence that they continue to lose to land a top draft pick and reinvigorate the roster with talent. Lose the game, but not your dignity, you know?

Kick it off, Ryland, and let’s get this one started . . .

Three players to watch other than the quarterbacks

Keenan Allen: As we learned from time to time in the dynasty years, great players don’t always make for great Patriots. Reggie Wayne lasted less than two weeks in training camp in 2015, finding it more grueling to endure Camp Belichick than what he was used to with the Colts, where all he really had to put up with was Peyton Manning yelling, “Omaha! Omaha!” at all hours of the day.

Allen, conversely, is one of those players who has had a long run of excellence elsewhere who is easy to envision being an ideal fit here during the Patriots’ heyday. He’s tough, relentless, and requires extra attention in the slot to have any chance of stopping him. In his 11th season with the Chargers, he’s 26th all time and climbing with 893 career receptions — just 10 behind Wes Welker, who made his living in the same spots on the field.

With 97 catches on 129 targets for 1,117 yards and seven touchdowns, Allen is en route to having the best season of his career. In the Chargers’ 28-24 victory over the Vikings in Week 3, Allen had a staggering 18 receptions on 20 targets for 215 yards. DeVante Parker has 18 catches for 200 yards this entire season.

The Patriots have typically done a good job defending Allen. In four regular-season games versus New England, he has never had more than six receptions or 77 yards. Jonathan Jones will probably draw the primary assignment on Allen, with plenty of assistance.

Herbert does not have many trustworthy options in the passing game — running back Ekeler is a distant second with 29 receptions on 44 targets — though it’s fair to wonder whether another Chargers receiver such as Quentin Johnston will emerge in the way Jalin Hyatt (five catches, 109 yards) did last week for the Giants. Human nature suggests the Chargers’ coaching staff would love to roast J.C. Jackson, a bust in Los Angeles who returned to the Patriots after being cut in early October.

Rhamondre Stevenson: Consider this our weekly appreciation of one player on the Patriots’ offense who consistently does his job well despite the maelstrom of ineptitude swirling around him. Against the Giants, Stevenson ran for 98 yards on 21 carries, both season highs, including a nifty 7-yard touchdown. Over the past three weeks, Stevenson has run for 273 yards on 50 carries, an average of 5.5 yards per attempt. Those three most recent games have accounted for nearly half of his season rushing total — at 580 yards, he needs to average 70 yards per game to reach 1,000 for the second straight season. In Patriots history, only Jim Nance (1966-67) and Curtis Martin (1996-97) have put together back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons. Stevenson, who also has 37 receptions for 238 yards, has provided most of this offense’s satisfying moments, and is worthy of joining such esteemed company.

Provided that the Patriots are trying to win, Stevenson should have a shot at his first 100-yard game of the season against the Chargers’ 14th-ranked run defense (110.6 yards per game).

Khalil Mack: In 145 regular-season games, the three-time All-Pro and 2016 Defensive Player of the Year has had 2½ sacks or more four times, including a six-sack tormenting of the Raiders in Week 4 this season. Why that specific number? Because if Mack collects 2½ sacks Sunday, it will give him an even 100 on his career, tying none other than Patriots legend and Pro Football Hall of Famer Andre Tippett (and longtime Bengal Carlos Dunlap) for 41st on the all-time list.

While 2½ sacks might be a tall order for most players on most Sundays, it’s not out of the question for Mack, who has 13 sacks on the season, gets to play against a shaky quarterback and a so-so line, and has been on a rampage. Six of his sacks came in November, with three multi-sack games in the month. Perhaps most alarmingly, he has four strip-sacks this season.

Grievance of the week

I like listening to Mike Lombardi. He’s an entertaining and often insightful media personality who has a deep supply of stories about his time working for the likes of Bill Walsh and especially Belichick. Lombardi’s words carry weight because of his Friend of Bill status and genuine position as an I-was-there insider with some of the best teams in NFL history. (He was with Belichick in Cleveland and with the Patriots from 2014-16.)

But this is also true: Lombardi can sometimes come across as a Belichick mouthpiece, perhaps not by specifically saying what the Patriots coach wants out there, but saying what he thinks the Patriots coach wants out there. And that can lead to some odd perceptions about how Belichick views things that may or may not be accurate.

Which is why I was taken aback when Lombardi buried Mac Jones more viciously than any pass rush ever has this past week.

While talking on his podcast, titled “The GM Shuffle,” about how it’s important for quarterbacks to have an authentic connection with their teammates, Lombardi cited the Rams’ Carson Wentz and the Jets’ Zach Wilson as two QBs who have never been able to win over their own huddle.

He then turned his ire to Jones and his likability.

“Nobody wants to hang out with Mac Jones,” Lombardi said. “Nobody wants to hang out with him. You can see it on these teams. So when you see a bad quarterback like [the Giants’ Tommy] DeVito — they’ll hang out with him. They’ll go over to his house and have chicken parm. Like, they like him. He’s no good — they like him, though. And I think that’s where we lose sight of it a little bit when we’re evaluating these quarterbacks. Because what is the likability of the player?”

Lombardi’s assessment seemed overly harsh and unfair. While Jones can be petulant on the field, teammates have always seemed genuine in saying they have his back, no matter how disjointed his play. He seems like a good and well-liked teammate to me, even with his poor, regressing performance being near the top of this team’s myriad issues. But because it’s Lombardi saying it, it inevitably leads to questions about whether that’s actually how Belichick feels about Jones. And no matter how bad Jones has been, implying he has no friends when his teammates’ actions over the last three years would suggest otherwise is not just unnecessary, but mean.

The flashback

In Week 5 of the 1978 season, the Patriots won a thriller over the Chargers, 28-23. Steve Grogan scrambled for the winning 4-yard touchdown with 36 seconds left, capping a comeback from a 20-7 deficit after dazzling Chargers rookie John Jefferson caught a pair of touchdown passes to construct an early lead. Late-game chaos was apparently commonplace for those Patriots, who improved to 3-2. “They seem to enjoy tempting fate, laughing in the face of imminent catastrophe,” wrote Steve Marantz in the Globe’s game story. “For the fourth week out of five, these Patriots have taken a 60-minute football game and distilled it into two minutes of frenzy.” Grogan put it more bluntly: “I may develop an ulcer before this season is over.”

Such an exciting victory would have led the sports section on most days. But in the Monday, Oct. 2, 1978, morning editions, it was relegated to Page 30, and the fourth page of sports. Why? If you’re a Boston sports fan of a certain age, finding the answer shouldn’t require much pondering. Let’s put it this way: The headlines on the sports front included “It’s Torrez vs. Guidry,” “Tiant’s two-hitter puts Sox in playoff,” “Indians set it up with 9-2 stunner,” and “Tickets? Forget it.” The Patriots’ win came the day before the Red Sox-Yankees one-game playoff, or the last day of Bucky Dent’s life that his middle name would be “Earl.”

Prediction, or just move them back to San Diego already . . .

The Patriots’ defense deserves a nod of appreciation for holding the Colts and Giants to 10 points apiece over the last two weeks. They did their job. But they were facing Gardner Minshew and DeVito, Who Lives At Home. Herbert will not be so accommodating. Given the Patriots’ offensive issues, they’re going to need at least one defensive score to have a chance. It’s far more likely that the Chargers get one. So, who do you like better, Caleb Williams or Drake Maye? Chargers 24, Patriots 10.