W2W4: New England Patriots (6-1) Offense vs Buffalo Bills (4-3) Defense
By Hal Bent
The New England Patriots moved to 3-0 with Tom Brady at quarterback since returning from his ridiculous four-game “Deflategate” suspension (which looks even more ridiculous after the NFL fumbled another domestic violence suspension with Giants kicker Josh Brown).
All Brady has done is throw for 1,004 yards (334.7 yards per game average) with eight touchdowns, no interceptions and a 132.6 quarterback rating.
The Patriots defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers in raucous Heinz Field as they took advantage of a Steelers offense which was missing Ben Roethlisberger. However, the Patriots’ offense piled up 222 yards through the air on 26 pass attempts and 140 yards on the ground on 29 rushes with their most balanced offense of the season (all stats courtesy of Pro-Football-Reference.com unless otherwise noted).
As the Steelers’ defense tried to take away the Patriots’ two-tight end attack, the Patriots turned their game plan around and leaned on LeGarrette Blount to pile up the yards and make Pittsburgh pay for overcommitting to the pass defense. Unlike against Denver in the AFC Championship game last season, the Patriots pounded the ball until the pass coverage loosened.
Now the Patriots face the only team that has defeated them season in Rex Ryan and the Buffalo Bills. Buffalo came into Foxboro on October 2nd and held the Patriots and third-string quarterback Jacoby Brissett and his injured thumb that required him to go on injured reserve after the game.
Brissett passed for just 205 yards and the Patriots only managed 90 yards on the ground as they were shutout by Buffalo. With Tom Brady behind center the Patriots will be looking to exact revenge as they head into the heart of the “Bills Mafia” fanbase in another loud and aggressive stadium.
MusketFire.com’s W2W4 (What to Watch for) weekly feature looks to give you the best analysis of the upcoming game. For your convenience, we will break the feature up into two parts over the weekend. Today, we examine the New England offense against the Bills’ defense.
So without further delay, let’s get to the match-ups for the Patriots’ passing offense against Bills’ passing defense, the keys to to the game, and then the Patriots’ rushing offense facing the Bills’ rushing defense.