On Sunday, the New England Patriots (6-1) and Buffalo Bills (4-3 will meet for the second time in four weeks.
The Bills were riding high till they fell to Miami last week 28-25. Entering the game, LeSean McCoy ha a banged up hamstring, which limited him to only eight touches. We’ll keep our eye on the injury reports throughout this week to see his participation in practice, but the Bills must have a backup plan at running back for New England.
Buffalo’s biggest offensive threat is their running game, and in particular, McCoy. No team can ride on just one running back throughout the entire 16 game season, but McCoy truly is perhaps the most valuable running back to his team. Tyrod Taylor does a lot of positive things in the passing game, but he can’t put the team on his back and keep up with Brady and Co.
One thing that the Bills rely heavily on is short, quick passes. They’ll be at a disadvantage this week as the Patriots have tremendous cover corners who tackle very well too.
So without a sustainable ground game and a heavily short pass influenced passing attack, the Bills will struggle against a versatile Patriots secondary, who can overwhelm this offense with various pre-snap looks and what not.
Buffalo will need another all in an effort to slow down the Patriots offense this week. With the run game shredding the Steelers for most of the game, Tom Brady didn’t need to throw for 300 yards and three touchdowns. He was efficient, though, throwing for 222 yards on 19/26 passing and two scores.
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Odds
Line: NE -6.5
Over/Under: 47
New England is once again a heavy road favorite. And while I still think they win, Buffalo will cover the spread. After a tough loss to Miami last week, I expect the Bills defense to step up. The issue is they haven’t proved they can run the ball without McCoy.
Prediction: New England 27 Buffalo 21