All eyes will be on the Buffalo Bills (4-2) when they travel to New England on Sunday to play the Patriots (1-5).
Last Sunday versus the Giants, in a game that all of Bills Mafia figured would be a cakewalk, the Bills barely held on in the final seconds to hold off the 1-5 Giants after having a an extremely inconsistent offensive performance against the 32nd ranked New York defense.
The Patriots have fared more success than the Giants, though not much, scoring only 20 points over their last three games.
The Patriots have a wealth of injuries to key players including starters Hunter Henry (TE), Trent Brown (OT), Josh Uche (LB), Jonathan Jones (CB) Jabrill Peppers (CB), Kyle Dugger (S), Davon Godchaux (DL), Christian Barmore (DL), David Andrews (C) and Juju Smith-Schuster (WR).
The Bills announced Friday morning that Ed Oliver (DT), Damien Harris (RB) and Quintin Morris (TE) will be out Sunday. Starters who have been on the injury report this week include Josh Allen (QB), Kaiir Elam (CB), Dane Jackson (CB) and Greg Rousseau (DE).
Many look for the Bills to get back on track versus the hapless Patriots, who’s legendary head coach, Bill Belichick’s job has been rumored to be on the hotseat after the team’s worst start in nearly 30 years.
In order to do this, look for the Bills to utilize the 1-2 punch of James Cook and Latavious Murray early to set up a passing game that has been inconsistent over the past two weeks versus the Jaguars and Giants.
Ball control is another key for the Bills offense. Last week versus the Giants, the Bills committed two critical turnovers in drives that were primed for scores.
Dalton Kincaid’s absence was felt also for the Bills versus the Giants last week as the 12-personel offense that Buffalo had been rolling with for most of the season and pre-season was deficient with Kincaid out with a concussion.
The Patriots have the 27th ranked offense with a broken quarterback. Mac Jones has thrown more interceptions than touchdown passes and has QB rating of 74.4, which is 30th among starting quarterbacks. If the Bills defense can get off the field early and often versus the Pats, it should give the Bills offense confidence and lead them to not feel the pressure to score as they did versus the Giants, who had surprising ball control.
Look for the Buffalo Bills to get back on track versus the reeling Patriots.
Bills win 32-17.
