Game week thread - Pats at Bills SNF

[The Frankish Reich]

15 hours ago, Success said:

The Pats are better this year, and Maye is pretty legit.  We've gotta show up.

 

The Pats seem to have a ... process. And it seems to be showing some early results. I don't think they're much of a danger to us this season in general, but a lucky bounce or two and it can become a real game.

[Coffeesforclosers]

21 minutes ago, Miyagi-Do Karate said:

come back after our next 28-point win,

And you will see all the, “we are peaking too early” panic threads.

 

Panic and pessimism are far too common on the board.

 

 

[The Frankish Reich]

3 hours ago, Ghost_002! said:

As a pats fan, this game to me is not coming at the right time. Pats need more time to gel. Still have no idea what their identity is. Pretty good up front. Besides Gonzales the rest of the secondary is questionable.

 

Is Drake Maye still turnover prone? We about to see against the Bills defense. Diggs is starting to be used alot more in the slot. They aren't trying to force balls to any receivers.

 

I'd just be happy if the game is competitive but Bills should win. Maye tends to start slow and throw alot of over the head balls early in games. And Bills should also get a couple of sacks too

I'm liking this new-style post-Brady era Pats fan thing. The swagger is gone!

28 minutes ago, Miyagi-Do Karate said:

come back after our next 28-point win,

And you will see all the, “we are peaking too early” panic threads.

You mean this isn't one we should lose on purpose?

[WhitewalkerInPhilly]

Are we eager to get the taste of last game out of our mouths? 

 

I'm not sure it's going to be any better. The Bills are definitely better than the Pats but they have played is tough in recent years.

[Low Positive]

3 hours ago, eball said:

Good god, it’s time for me to stay away from this board for a week.  Ya’ll are pathetic.

 

Bills lost to the Chiefs yesterday. Must be, because we're firing the coach and Xavier Worthy is an all-pro. I read all that here on TBD. I get all my football info here because "enquiring minds want to know" (I figure a reference to a TV commercial from the 80's would go over well with this crowd.)

Edited Monday at 03:25 PM by Low Positive

[Rockinon]

The injury report this week should be interesting. Guys getting healthy will only add to what this game all ready is... an inevitable Bills win. 

[MJS]

41 minutes ago, Success said:

I actually thought he was better last week. He had the turnovers, but he played really well otherwise.  He has a great arm & can scramble/improvise really well.

 

The key to his career (imo) is if he can get the turnovers under control, like Allen was able to.  If he can't, he'll be more like Winston than Allen.  But he's got talent.

He is your classic gunslinger, just like Bo Nix is. You live and die by that mentality. They throw the ball all over the field and play with confidence, and sometimes that works out really well. Sometimes it leads to bad turnovers. Josh Allen had that in him some, but at least he always held onto the ball and tried to read the defense and find open receivers, even when he was young. Gunslingers usually predetermine where they are going and fire it off quickly.

 

Against experienced coaches like McDermott, that mentality is going to get you in trouble. He might have a really nice drive or two where it looks like he is carving up the defense, but then adjustments will come and he will make throws he shouldn't, and that's when the turnovers happen.

[PaattMaann]

17 minutes ago, boyst said:

the Patriots can win the ground game against our defense. they run well.

 

a divisional game against a new coach who has put up well against the bills historically is nto goign to be an easy victory for the Bills

 

Didn't say it was going to be easy. I said bills win by 10. 

[billsbackto81]

3 hours ago, Billsfanatic8989 said:

Are people saying Maye is legit based on his performance against the Panthers. Or, other things they have seen? He still has a bad habit of turning it over. 

Look up his stats compared to Josh.

 

They are practically identical in every category except completion % where Maye is actually better.

 

I'm not saying he's arrived, but he's pretty darn good regardless of who they've played. 

[947]

We definitely can't keep relying on a late roughing the Punter call or a late INT to ice games. The Defense has to find a way to at least not be one of the worst in the league this week.

 

This a game we should win easily, but I don't know if we're capable of beating any team easily right now. If the D plays anything like last week, Maye will look like an MVP & it'll take our offense scoring 40 to win it.

[MikePJ76]

First thing concerning to me about the pats game.  They run a 3-4 much like New Orleans does.  The whole game yesterday it looked like the saints had 5 defensive lineman on the field.  The Bills ran right through it.  New England however is second in run defense.  So third and longs are concerning.

 

and of course we know vrabel is going to run the ball 40 times and hope for third and shorts where he has diggs in the slot and a mobile qb.  So this is a real challenge.

 

The key as always is playing with a lead and making new england do what they don't want to and pass the ball more than run.

[PaattMaann]

3 minutes ago, 947 said:

We definitely can't keep relying on a late roughing the Punter call or a late INT to ice games. The Defense has to find a way to at least not be one of the worst in the league this week.

 

This a game we should win easily, but I don't know if we're capable of beating any team easily right now. If the D plays anything like last week, Maye will look like an MVP & it'll take our offense scoring 40 to win it.

 

You mean the defense that held the opponent to under 20 points, under 300 total yards (only 126 passing) and held them to 5-15 on 3/4th downs? Or the defense that has shown for 8 years now that they continuously take the ball away? 

[MikePJ76]

I am looking at some of the team defensive stats.  

 

The Bills are number 1 in a number of passing stats.  Comp %, yards, yds/attempt at 5.5!  20+ yard plays. 

 

among the leagues worst in sacks however with only 9 which makes it pretty odd how good the pass defense is.

 

new england is the flip side giving up alot of yards, td's, 20+ yard plays.

 

So it appears the Pats have an excellent run defense because they have struggled in pass defense and had a blowout win yesterday.

Edited Monday at 03:40 PM by MikePJ76

[Andrew Son]

35 minutes ago, boyst said:

the Patriots can win the ground game against our defense. they run well.

 

By what metric?  I'm seeing them as a bottom third rushing attack with ball security issues.

[The Firebaugh Kid]

14 hours ago, Coldfronts said:

Those cold front jerseys are like 150 bucks. Come on!

Saw three on women at Naples Grape Fest this weekend alone. 

[PoundingDog]

12 hours ago, Fleezoid said:

I'd like to see the offense open up a bit. I understand a balanced offense approach, and Cook is tearing it up, but this offense lacks flare and creativity lately.

I don't know there is more "opening up" on offense people are expecting, unless you are talking about letting Josh sling the ball all over the place like the late 4th quarter Ravens game where we are desperate to catch up.

 

I don't care for offense "flare" but I do agree it lacks creativity now under Brady. We can all agree Joe Brady is not someone of McVay or Ben Johnson class where there are innovative designs, IDing defense calls (not Patriots style of stealing signs illegally). Innovation means something new to take advantage of specific player/talent, call sequences etc. It looked like we are focusing on execution and key guys like Cook, Allen are really executing consistently on a high level. I will point out that Allen seemed to have moved into this high level execution level (yesterday might be his worst game from execution standpoint), which is NOT people quite expected, even after his breakout season of 2020. To execute 10, 15 plays on offense to score TDs consistently is HARD. In fact many defenses, including our own McDermott, build defensive philosophy around forcing offenses to execute play after play and eventually there is a mistake to be capitalized on. So far we are doing it. Allen, like Mahomes, uses his special traits to work out the occasional negative plays along the way.

 

 

 

[HereComesTheReignAgain]

37 minutes ago, PoundingDog said:

Please don't use this argument. There are people all over question what the Bills have beat. The Bills are 4-0 and their opponents have 1 win TOTAL so far. 1  WIN. if not for the respect of Josh Allen, Bills would be treated like the Colts prior yesterday.

The Bills are undefeated and the Pats* are .500 with one loss against a 1 win team.  The Bills have won all their games by at least 10 points except for the opener against the Ravens.  The Pats* are not anywhere near as good as the Bills and all this fear and apprehension for the upcoming game makes no sense.

[Captain_Quint]

13 minutes ago, Andrew Son said:

By what metric?  I'm seeing them as a bottom third rushing attack with ball security issues.

I watched the game last week and I think they had 4 or 5 fumbles, three by the starting RB. So ball security can be an advantage for us if that continues. 

[Sojourner]

7 minutes ago, The Frankish Reich said:

The Pats seem to have a ... process. And it seems to be showing some early results. I don't think they're much of a danger to us this season in general, but a lucky bounce or two and it can become a real game.

Definitely some results, especially their pass rush, have bared fruit so far. 
 

Which will be a problem if Spencer Brown can’t play again. 
 

Saw a lot of eye rolls, laughs and dismissing at those who go said the Saints weren’t going to just be a rollover game…

 

Patriots are a better team. This game can’t going to be a period of stalemates like we saw in the second quarter. Thankfully the Saints couldn’t muster anything other than a FG on a punt from short field, penalty included. 

 

18 minutes ago, MikePJ76 said:

I am looking at some of the team defensive stats.  

 

The Bills are number 1 in a number of passing stats.  Comp %, yards, yds/attempt at 5.5!  20+ yard plays. 

 

among the leagues worst in sacks however with only 9 which makes it pretty odd how good the pass defense is.

 

new england is the flip side giving up alot of yards, td's, 20+ yard plays.

 

So it appears the Pats have an excellent run defense because they have struggled in pass defense and had a blowout win yesterday.

Teams are successful on the ground. Not having to be heavily reliant on the pass. Couple that with it being a closer game where they aren’t forced to air it out to catch up fast. 

[billieve420]

Division game and team's tendency to play down to opponents. Expecting a tough game. Hopefully, McDermott has team ready and they play better than they did against the Saints.