The Pats need to do some things that the are good at on offense that the Bills won't be expecting. The Bills are going to sell out to stop the run and force Jones to throw. This will be the perfect time to use the play action far more. Jones is very good play action QB, but McDaniels rarely utilizes that skill. Time to use it. They did some in the second half against Miami with some pretty good results. Need to do it more.
Also, I will repeat, they need to get Bourne and Henry more involved in the offense (and not just the red zone for Henry). They are the Pats' two best receiver, but are used sparingly in favor of Meyers and Agholor. You get the ball in Bourne's hands and he can do dynamic things. On a play that the Bills sell outs on the run, do a play action quick pass to Bourne and watch him pick up an extra 10-15 or more yards easy.
If you start to pick apart their defense with the play action, they cannot sell out against the run anymore. They eight or nine in the box anymore. They have to drop a player or two into coverage. So then Harris, Stevenson, and Bolden can eat yards on the ground.
On defense, they have to be aggressive right off the bat. In the last game, they played a soft zone with a four man rush. The rush didn't work and Allen had 4-5 seconds to throw consistently. They can play zone, but they need to play more press zone. Bump his receivers off the line. And they have to manufacture more of pass rush. They need to mix it up more. A delayed blitz. A stunt. Disguise rushes. Move guys on and off the line presnap. Something. If they had the pass rush, the soft zone would work against Allen. But you give any QB 4-5 seconds to throw against a zone and someone is going to get open.
If the Pats are going to win, the Pats will need to outcoach the Bills. Vanilla zone defenses aren't going to cut it. I think just running the ball 30-40 will definitely get yards and get points, but I am not sure it will be enough to win. The Pats need to throw the Bills a curveball.
