I’m sitting in a sports bar in downtown Las Vegas (the gambling mecca’s smaller, seedier, much cooler tourist district, relative to the more popularly gaudy Strip), watching the Buffalo Bills take on the dreaded New England Patriots in a Sunday-night game with my brother-in-law. They’re at the top because a Bill Belichick-coached team does “Next Man Up” better than anyone else in the business.
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Not to sound too cliché, but the game was one for the ages. It has given up 68.2 rush yards per game during that span. A vital part of the game will be if the Bills can protect their quarterback from New England’s vicious defense.
There’s no guarantee that Martin will experience the same level of success as prior mid-season trades, but it appears Belichick has a good system of evaluating talent on other teams.
Of course, Ryan did know what they were talking about.
Auburn beating Alabama in the Iron Bowl on the Kick-Six play as time ran out was luck, but New England’s won and kept winning because everyone from undrafted center David Andrews to second-year corner Malcolm Butler to the Destroyer of Worlds Rob Gronkowski has stepped up and “done their job”. I’ve lost seven of eight against them. “So with that being said, I’m going to say he’s not very good”. We better play better than that, we better coach better than that. We’re not that team.
And two of the Patriots’ best receiving threats have gone down for the rest of the regular season, at least.
“The Bills have yielded 100-yard rushers in all of their last four games”.
Third round pick John Miller has started every game at guard but while he’s struggled for much of his rookie season, the Bills are hoping that his game comes around. Sammy Watkins, Tyrod Taylor and LeSean McCoy have all missed time this season, and Bill Belichick certainly wasn’t crying about it then.
The Bills have also toned down their rhetoric from earlier this season, when players proclaimed their dislike for the Patriots prior to the Week 2 matchup.
On WEEI radio Monday morning, quarterback Tom Brady said that if the Patriots offense could get the football spotted at “around the 35-yard line” that Gostkowski had a “great opportunity”. Things are different this time, though, as the Patriots will be without RB Dion Lewis and WR Julian Edelman who combined for 247 yards from scrimmage in the first game.
It’s still uncertain who will be playing for the Patriots; it could be Marcus Cannon, or perhaps Cameron Fleming. These two longtime foes meet annually in AFC East battles, although with Tom Brady holding a 24-3 career mark in games against Buffalo it’s hard to describe the recent series as a battle. If the Patriots defense can contain Taylor while stuffing the Bills rushing attack, it might be a long day for Rex and his boys. Rex had labeled his group “the most talented defense he had ever been with” and the players believed him.
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The bad news is that the Jets ran three plays that are still sticking in everyone’s craw today.
