What Can Be Learned From the Patriots 17-9 Loss to the Bills? Not Much...
 Vince Wilfork capped off a big comeback season with a big bonus of playing incentives met on Sunday. (USA TODAY Images) |
The Buffalo Bills defeated the New England Patriots 17-9 ending 13 seasons of frustration for them and finished the season with a winning record for the first time since 2004.
Buffalo’s last win in New England was back in 2000 before the current stadium was even built so the fact that the Patriots treated this as sort of an extended pre-season game won’t be talked about much there. For the Patriots they end the season with the #1 seed in the playoff and at 12-4 are in good shape for the playoffs.
The team will have next week off and then watch the Wild Card games to see who will travel to Foxboro for the divisional playoff game on Saturday, Jan. 10 at 4:35 p.m. And they’ll have to ratchet up the intensity for the playoffs, something that was noticeably missing in this otherwise drab finale.
In the end, nothing that happened yesterday mattered to anyone except the Bills who were playing for pride. The Patriots had nothing to gain yesterday in the standings, so they rested a lot of players and sat others in the second half…much like a pre-season game.
Other observations from Sunday’s game include:
Home Stat Streak Broken: With this loss, the Patriots 35 game home regular season winning streak has been broken. The last time the team lost a regular season game at home against an AFC opponent was in 2008 against the Steelers.
As we mentioned above, their 13 game home winning streak against the Bills was also snapped. Buffalo’s last win was an overtime win in the old stadium.
Vanilla Game Plan Showing: With scouts from the Steelers, Ravens, Colts in the house to scout possible upcoming playoff games, the Pats played this one close to the vest, lining up in very basic looks on both offense and defense.
So there wasn’t much any of those teams could gleam from a bare-bones game plan from Bill Belichick….nothing to see here.
Belichick Health Scare? “It was no big deal”: For the first time since he took over as head coach of the Patriots back in 2000, Bill Belichick did not hold a post-game press conference. It was announced that he was seeing the team’s medical staff and doctor and that he’d hold a conference call shortly after.
In what was reported in some circles as an intestinal issue, Belichick later did talk to the press, apologizing for the delay (he must be sick), and said that "It's no big deal, I don't want to get into it," Belichick said.
MVP, Thy Name Is Gronkowski: The Patriots rested many of their players on Sunday, including Julian Edelman, Brandon Browner, Dont’a Hightower, Dan Connolly, Sebastian Vollmer and Jonas Gray. Others such as Tom Brady, Devin McCourty, Jamie Collins and Darrelle Revis were removed at halftime. But all of those players have been nursing injuries or otherwise playing hurt. The only exception on the list was TE Rob Gronkowski who was a healthy scratch.
That should remove any doubts as to who is the most influential player on the Patriots offense. If the scouts in attendance want to take something home, take this…Gronk is the one player the Patriots feel they can’t do without.
While slowly working his way back from surgery back in training camp, Gronk said his goal was to play in all 16 games and be a factor for the playoffs. While he missed yesterday, that was merely a precaution as the team gave him some extra time to get ready for what they hope is a three-game sprint to the finish.
”We have some guys that have played a lot of football for us, and we felt like today would be an opportunity for us to have some guys who haven’t played as much to get an opportunity to play,” said Bill Belichick who in a very un-Belichick move rested a healthy Gronkowski Sunday.
As we’ve stated here numerous times, Gronkowski is a ‘force multiplier’ for the Patriots offense. His value is far more than actually numbers in a fantasy football contest. He makes everyone around him better, and from the sheer volume of attention he gets, he opens up large tracts of the field for everyone else.
Think his absence wasn’t noticed by the other players on the field? Think again. “You know that the middle of the field is not so much open when you go across and Gronk is not there”, said Brandon LaFell. “It’s a lot of double-teams, a lot of sitting back in zone trying to wait and catch us instead of a guy or two over the top of Gronk or Gronk getting double-teamed. It’s a big difference.”
Gronkowski is this team’s MVP and he should (but won’t) get some serious consideration for the league’s honor as well. But the more important thing is the Patriots will have a healthy Gronkowski for the playoffs in two weeks. That is something they didn’t have in the 2011 Super Bowl, 2012, or last season.
LaFell, Wilfork Hit Incentives: So while the team had a noticeable lack of spark on the field, a few of the players did hit the payday button by hitting some notable incentives in their contracts.
Brandon LaFell caught 4 passes for 70 yards pushing him over the 900 yard mark for the season and in doing so garnered a $100,000 bonus. He already cashed in on a $200,000 bonus for exceeding 800 yards earlier this season.
Vince Wilfork who signed an incentive laden contract in the spring, played in 33 of 58 defensive snaps Sunday, which puts him over 74 percent of the team’s defensive snaps of the season. Wilfork had a clause stating that if he played in 70 percent or more, it would kick in a $1.25 million dollar bonus. An added incentive was if the Patriots finished in the top ten defenses in terms of scoring, that he’d receive an additional $500,000.
The Patriots finished the season allowing 313 points which is good for 8th in the NFL….translation? Merry Christmas big fella, you’re getting paid. And well deserved at that.
Two of the questions entering the season for the Patriots were, how effective would Wilfork be coming off of a serious Achilles injury at 33? And what could LaFell bring to the offense, especially after struggling thru spring, summer and being shut out the first two games. Well both passed those tests with flying colors. Wilfork has had his best season in the past several, providing that big, immovable body up front.
LaFell with 74 catches, 953 yards and seven touchdowns has been a tremendous third option for the New England offense. He and Julian Edelman who missed the final two games just missed the chance to break the 1000 yard barrier on the season. But with Gronk, the trio gives Tom Brady some nice options in the passing game once the tournament begins in earnest on January 10.
Offensive Line Struggles Again: While the starting unit was missing two of its members, the overall play of the Patriots offensive line was not good on Sunday. Granted, Buffalo’s defensive line is outstanding and they’ve been on a role, but the offense couldn’t get anything going, even on a day when they admittedly weren’t putting it all on the line.
Neither Tom Brady nor Jimmy Garappolo was given enough time to throw the ball and that is a concern that will be monitored moving forward. This team will only go as far as the offensive line allows it to. Going back to the Super Bowl losses to the Giants and recent playoff losses to the Ravens and Broncos, a common theme was the Patriots OL was overwhelmed at the point of attack.
It isn’t a panic button problem at this point, but it is an issue that needs to be aware of.
Injury Front: Speaking of the offensive line, LT Nate Solder left the game yesterday with a knee injury and didn’t return. His absence, if he misses any time will be a huge loss for the team. LaFell limped off for a time with an ankle or foot injury but was able to return for the final series for the offense.
Sealver Siliga also limped off with a foot injury and didn’t return. His recent return from IR-Return has been a big boost to the Patriots run defense. These injuries plus the ones that the team is already dealing with, will be well served by the time off during the bye.
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