The Patriots and Bills face off for the 2nd time in three weeks, and the stakes are much higher. The winner of this matchup will have the definite inside tracks to winning the AFC East division. The Bills will be looking to avenge a Week 13 loss on Monday night football when the Patriots won the game despite their quarterback Mac Jones just throwing the ball three times. After the tough loss, Coach McDermott and his players were salty in their comments about the Patriots and the game. It all makes for must-see television when these two teams square off at 1 pm at Gillette Stadium. In this article, we preview the game and make our score prediction.
1. The Bills-the team head into the matchup after a good 31-14 win on the road against the Panthers. However, the Panthers still ran the ball effectively for 151 yards. It is a definite concern because the Patriots will do the same thing in this game. In their week 13 contest, the Patriots ran it for 222 yards on 46 carries and a 4.8 yards per carry. The Bills have this problem seemingly every week by giving up 112 yards per game. However, if they can slow down the Patriots on the ground, their pass defense can attack Mac Jones and put him under duress. The unit ranks 2nd in pressure rate and 12th in blitzing the quarterback. On offense, the Bills will need to present a more balanced attack than just asking Josh Allen to throw the ball on every down. If there is a weakness to exploit with the Patriots, it is their rush defense, and they gave up 170 yards last week to Jonathan Taylor.
2. The Patriots-the team missed their leading rusher, Damien Harris, which resulted in the team gaining only 81 yards on the ground last week. Mac Jones’ will play a bigger role in deciding this contest, and last week the young quarterback had an indifferent performance. He did have 299 passing yards along with two touchdowns but did throw two costly interceptions. Mac will be looking to build on his chemistry with Hunter Henry, and he has emerged as the teams’ number one red zone threat. The Patriots’ defense will be encouraged by Josh Allen suffering four sacked last week to the Panthers. The unit held Carson Wentz last week to only five completed passes and still had an interception.
3. Head to Head- the Patriots and Bills have contested 123 games due to their rivalry in the AFC East decision. The Patriots lead the head-to-head series 77-45-1. From 2000 during the Bill Belichick era, the Patriots have a 36-7 in the past 43 games. The Patriots are also 17-3 in their last 20 home games against the Bills. The Patriots did suffer an embarrassing loss last season on Monday Night Football which will be fresh in Bill Belichick’s mind as one of the worst losses under his regime.
4. Stats-Hunter Henry is right behind Matt Judon as the Patriots’ biggest free-agent acquisition. Henry has the most TD receptions (9) by a Patriots TE since Rob Gronkowski had 11 in 2015.
5. Score Prediction-the weather will be a non-factor on the game with the forecast for partly cloudy and temperature of 42 degrees. The Bills will have no excuses when the Patriots beat them in this game. The Bills fail each week to bring physicality to stop the run game, and Mac Jones showed his competency to lead his team down the field when he has to play big. The Bills lack a consistent run game, and Bill Belichick has shown that he can make life difficult for Josh Allen in the red zone.
Final Score-Patriots 27-Bills 23
