Game Day Thread Official Pats at Bills Playoff Pregame Discussion Thread

[venecol]

0 degrees, 6mph wind, clear skies.

Pats just released uniforms they'll wear for the game.

 

[gitgronked82]

Belichick did not rule Mills out, which would seem to indicate that he is vaccinated and has a chance to return without sitting out the full five days. Still not likely, but possible.

Yeah, I was encouraged to see this as well

 

[Patnation21]

They do feel a little different, but I've played pickup football games in the snow and cold plenty of times, and never really had a problem handling the football. You adjust very quickly. The bigger issues are slipping or sliding in the snow, or finding that acceleration and cuts are a bit harder to make. I don't think the field will be covered in snow, however, so that shouldn't be an issue.

We played the Bills close each time, and split with them in case some of the doom and gloom crowd forgets, so I'm not too concerned about this game. If JC holds onto that interception in the last game, we probably pull off the comeback. I expect the defense to come out with a bit of a chip on their shoulders after the way they let the Bills score on them. This will probably be a 27-24 kind of game, but I'd like to think we can pull off the win. The cold weather may impact some play calls, but otherwise it will be a slugfest, and should be exciting!

Don't forget the Bills dropped a 3rd easy pick that game as well. Can't remember who it was but the ball sailed right through his hands, I think it was Levi Wallace. Those kinda plays usually happen both ways thats why I don't look into "what ifs" very often. We usually only remember the "what ifs" from our team and overlook the other team.

 

[40yrpatsfan]

Could this year's Pats be the 2010 Jets where the Pats absolutely crushed them late in the season and then the Jets came into Foxboro as huge underdogs in the Wild Card round and blew out the Patriots?

I was gonna say, we have them where we want them, everyone thinks we suck and are beat up. Prime conditions for an upset.

The availability of Mills and Barmore is big. Also, zero degrees is a huge x factor, it'll be difficult for either team's offense to execute. Mac has to be careful with snaps and handoffs, not just throws. There will probably be a lot of punts, but how will Bailey do with them?

 

[Family]

The fact that it's 5-1 is probably due to sample size a bit, but give it enough time and I bet it'll always be a coin flip in these situations.

I don't know.

It's gonna be 6-1 after this one!

 

[upstater1]

Have to make him uncomfortable in what will be one of the coldest games in NFL history. Also, check the comments out lmao.

Zach Piller: "I'm freaking out."

 

[upstater1]

What I remember most about the Titans game in '03 was McNair throwing up Flacco-esque balls well downfield and our DBs unable to adjust because of the cold.

I think we need Mac to throw up some prayers especially on 3rd down.

On the flip side, I'm very worried about our DBs getting burned the same way.

 

[SlowGettingUp]

This is one of those stats that shouldn't be too surprising

See this amusing article about why every team might lose:

The Bills went 2-4 against playoff-bound opponents, with a much more modest plus-10 score differential. The Bills are expected to face only playoff teams in the playoffs.

The Reason Every N.F.L. Playoff Team Will Lose (Published 2022)

Only one of these teams will prove us wrong.

www.nytimes.com

 

[Patsgofor4]

Saturday night in Buffalo is going to be very similar weatherwise to the Saturday night playoff game versus Tennessee in 2004 (shout out to Bethel Johnson). I was supposed to go to the game but broke my ankle playing snow football with some buddies one week before…..had surgery that afternoon and watched the game in my hospital bed doped up on dilaudid. My friends who did go admitted that it was hard at times to not get distracted by how cold it was. Hopefully that leads to a less raucous crowd. Plus, Allen just talked to the media yesterday about how he must have poor circulation in his feet, because his toes “freeze” easily in the cold weather and that is something with which he will have to contend. You love to hear that.

(edit: just saw that someone already posted the tweet about Allen and his toes… haven’t had time to read today’s posts)

 

[Mack Herron]

 

[Rob0729]

What I remember most about the Titans game in '03 was McNair throwing up Flacco-esque balls well downfield and our DBs unable to adjust because of the cold.

I think we need Mac to throw up some prayers especially on 3rd down.

On the flip side, I'm very worried about our DBs getting burned the same way.

I don't know about that. There were a couple, but McNair only threw for 210 yards on 26 passes. I can't remember a lot of the specifics about this game. But I remember that neither team did a great job moving the ball in the air (Brady had 201 yards on 41 passes).

Here are the highlights of game.

 

[Vindicate]

Wtf is up with Duggars hand again? Sorry if it's been covered - I thought he was one of the folks who the Colts concussed, but my brain is about as good as a concussed one, so I could be remembering wrong

(Btw I am salivating at a chance to face them next year. That game reignited my hate for them.)

 

[Ring 6]

Definitely wasn’t just that Bryant was in the zone they were targeting. We ran cover 1 for 47% of the snaps that game, and we started in zone early while Allen was hitting RBs short etc.

Bryant was playing outside leverage man (like the pats often do) and got out leveraged and outrun across the field. It would help him if we had anyone collision him to reroute, yeah.

It’s also not accurate that they were sitting in off man 5-10 yards off the ball all game. For example, here’s one of the biggest completions of the game, if not the biggest. We’re pressed on their 2 WRs on the LOS. Bryant is off, but you aren’t going to press every DB on the field. If dugger re-routed Bryant’s man, he could have caught up.
Or we could stop playing outside leverage for all of these.View attachment 39845

We were killed by short passes. They ran off the coverage and dumped it under.

 

[Rob0729]

Interesting that the Pats are practicing outdoors and the Bills are practicing indoors. If I remember correctly, this was the same thing before the last game in Buffalo.

 

[gitgronked82]

We were killed by short passes. They ran off the coverage and dumped it under.

For the first drive or two of the game, yep

 

[upstater1]

I don't know about that. There were a couple, but McNair only threw for 210 yards on 26 passes. I can't remember a lot of the specifics about this game. But I remember that neither team did a great job moving the ball in the air (Brady had 201 yards on 41 passes).

Here are the highlights of game.

I just realized what I was misremembering: the last throw when Bennett was wide open after a blind heave by McNair. The way Poole fell off and basically looked like he was stuck in mud, I somehow remembered it as a completion.

 

[captain stone]

Don't even get me started on Puuka Ralph, man...

 

[captain stone]

Bryant has been terrible. Why do you think he is better than Williams? Did I misunderstand your post?

Because nobody can be worse. Nobody.

 

[captain stone]

I thought the guys on both sides of the trenches played badly for the Patriots in the 2nd Bills game.

I don't think we've seen either team at full go against one another yet.

This is why I think the game is somewhat in the balance. The Bills have to be able to stop the running game again because this time, Mac Jones will throw it, and if the OL gives him some support, it's not going to be constant pressure like we saw in New England.

By the way, tickets are dropping like a rock, $40 upper bowl, $60 second level, $70 end zones.

I might wait until Friday.

I'd wait until Saturday... Everybody in the world knows this is going to be Non-competitive, so the prices will be even lower by game time.

 

[captain stone]

We need to copy the gameplay that indy put on him....seemed to confuse him a lot. We'll also need to be able to run the ball and keep it away from him.

Except that Indy (minus their jumpy crap QB) has actual Talent to execute that game plan...