A reason the Patriots might lose Monday night to Buffalo

[Family]

The Patriots and Bills could (even likely) meet three times in the next 7-8 weeks.

How often does a team beat one as good as the Bills three times in that period?

Bill will have to go a little vanilla. He can't empty out the plan. To win three straight from a team that good, Bill must know he needs his team to beat them head to head on talent alone during some of this stretch. This game for multiple reasons seems like the place to begin.

This is what is meant by chess vs checkers. Sean McDermott will be all in.

 

[jah]

We bust out trick plays in September games against bottom level opponents, I'm not sure this is how the coaches operate.

 

[VectorPrime]

The Bills can absolutely win but I’ll be flabbergasted if it’s from them out coaching the Pats.

 

[Kontradiction]

It’s December and it’s for first place in the division with the 1 seed on the line. Not the time to go vanilla.

 

[Patsgofor4]

The Patriots and Bills could (even likely) meet three times in the next 7-8 weeks.

How often does a team beat one as good as the Bills three times in that period?

Bill will have to go a little vanilla. He can't empty out the plan. To win three straight from a team that good, Bill must know he needs his team to beat them head to head on talent alone during some of this stretch. This game for multiple reasons seems like the place to begin.

This is what is meant by chess vs checkers. Sean McDermott will be all in.

 

[venecol]

Bill will have to go a little vanilla. He can't empty out the plan.

If Pats lose this game they drop from #2 seed to potentially #6 seed. Bill's not going vanilla right before the bye.

 

[BTTA]

I like this take. The Pats are at a disadvantage from a coaching standpoint. Let's get that out into Instaface ASAP. Get Volin to think it is his original thinking, and WEEI to run with it.

 

[Nikolai]

So much hate for vanilla...makes me sick.

 

[Ring 6]

Yes I am sure that belichick is so overwhelmed by needing to game plan for an opponent twice that he is going to mail in a first place game so he can wow them later. He always coaches scared

 

[sb1]

The Patriots and Bills could (even likely) meet three times in the next 7-8 weeks.

How often does a team beat one as good as the Bills three times in that period?

Bill will have to go a little vanilla. He can't empty out the plan. To win three straight from a team that good, Bill must know he needs his team to beat them head to head on talent alone during some of this stretch. This game for multiple reasons seems like the place to begin.

This is what is meant by chess vs checkers. Sean McDermott will be all in.

We're not playing vanilla in a week 13 game against anyone. Definitely not ih a game where we can seize control of the division race and a win brightens our chances to take the #1 seed in the conference by a lot.

Pats lose this game then there's a chance they'll be 8-6 with playoffs much less of a sure thing when they play the Bills again. I expect they'll go all out for this game.

 

[Family]

We bust out trick plays in September games against bottom level opponents, I'm not sure this is how the coaches operate.

Good point and this made perfect sense.

Rookie QB and the offense needed to get in sync. It was against the Jets so good chance everything would work.

All the mistakes went away. Six game win streak.

Checkers and chess.

 

[Family]

We're not playing vanilla in a week 13 game against anyone.

Pats lose this game then there's a chance they'll be 8-6 with playoffs much less of a sure thing when they play the Bills again. I expect they'll go all out for this game.

Vanilla was the only word that came to mind.

Not releasing the entire plan.

But Sean McDerrmott will be all in.

 

[SHOWTIME15]

The pats haven't played our first game against the Bills and we are already talking about losing?

There is no guarantee the Pats and Bills are going to play 3 times. You go all in on these next two match ups. The more losses the Bills pile up against teams like NE and TB, the more likely they'll get pushed to one of the lower seeds.

 

[sb1]

Vanilla was the only word that came to mind.

Not releasing the entire plan.

But Sean McDerrmott will be all in.

And so will the Pats. Bill will not hold anything back. He knows this game means a lot, and it does.

 

[scout]

The pats haven't played our first game against the Bills and we are already talking about losing?

There is no guarantee the Pats and Bills are going to play 3 times. You go all in on these next two match ups. The more losses the Bills pile up against teams like NE and TB, the more likely they'll get pushed to one of the lower seeds.

Good point of not playing the Bills 3 times. Even if the scenario of 3 games plays out, BB will not play down any of those games. One of these teams may not make the playoffs. It would be unpleasant if it's the Patriots, but tortuous for the Bills.

 

[VectorPrime]

The game after this is also no layup so lmao at the idea that the Pats don’t really mind if they lose.

 

[Brotherblues]

I've seen them go, not necessarily vanilla, but they've used an inferior opponent as a training dummy before. One example that sticks out is one time they wanted to practice their run game and pretty much ran the ball exclusively for a whole game against the Jete. I forget what year that was.

At any rate that doesn't apply to Monday.

Great coaches don't "empty out" the playbook. Great coaches continue to replenish and adapt and evolve their playbooks. If we play them 3 times, well, that means 3 gameplans. Each with overlaps, yes, but also each with its own wrinkles.

 

[Ivan]

It’s December and it’s for first place in the division with the 1 seed on the line. Not the time to go vanilla.

Agree. Now that Patricia has taken Ernie Adam’s position I wouldn’t be surprised if Belichick had tasked him with breaking down everything in Allen’s game and how best to attack him and confuse him. Belichick knows that winning the division is the first hurdle and I am sure he targeted the Buffalo games as the most important games on their schedule.

 

[Ivan]

Vanilla was the only word that came to mind.

Not releasing the entire plan.

But Sean McDerrmott will be all in.

Disagree on this. Winning the first match up is always more important as it provides more leeway in the second, especially since the second game is at home. They are all important but it’s always better to be one up than one down.

 

[TheRainMaker]

You want to beat them in their house and not only send a message, but also create doubt.