Preview: Buffalo at New England
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Posted Under: 2000 Patriots Season
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FOXBORO, MA — The Patriots (2-6) will return to action this Sunday and will face Doug Flutie and the Buffalo Bills (4-4) at Foxboro Stadium. New England’s last game was a 30-23 loss to the Indianapolis Colts at the RCA Dome back on October 22nd when they allowed 16 unanswered points in the fourth quarter giving Indianapolis the victory. New England has now been outscored by a margin of 55-28 this season in the fourth quarter.
The Bills meanwhile are coming off of an emotional victory over the Jets last Sunday. Steve Christie’s 34-yard field goal as time expired was the difference in a game where Buffalo simply played better. They forced 4 turnovers by the Jets and committed none of their own, and with the victory have won two of their last three games. Last season they swept the Patriots for the first time since 1993, and in their last trip to Foxboro they defeated New England in overtime 13-10.
The Bills announced Thursday that they will be starting quarterback Doug Flutie again this week while Rob Johnson’s shoulder continues to heal. Flutie presents a challenge to the Patriots defense, and head coach Bill Belichick definitely is aware of how good at improvising that the Bills quarterback can be.
“He’s tough,” said Belichick on Wednesday. “He’s a very accurate passer, especially on the deep ball. He can really, really put the ball on the money and does it a lot to [Eric] Moulds. So he stretches the field on you, then he’s very quick in the pocket, he’s extremely quick, his speed is good, but his quickness is really exceptional.”
“It puts a lot of pressure on your pass rush, because you’re so concerned about containing him. I think once he gets out of the pocket and can really improvise and can scramble to run or scramble to throw that he is really at his best element, and defensively you’re probably in your worst, that’s probably the worst case scenario because he’s so much better at that, then defenses are at defending it.”
“You really don’t want that to happen, and the more concerned you are about keeping him from getting out, then kind of the less aggressive you are and you can end trying to be too cautious, so you have to guard against that. He’s really the total package.”
Belichick also went on to say that Flutie is also one of the more instinctive quarterbacks that he’s ever seen.
“He’s a smart guy,” said Belichick. “Instinctively he’s probably as good as any quarterback I’ve ever seen. He just knows what to do and when to do it. I can’t really tell you why, you see a guy coming on the blindside and think he is going to take his head off and he ducks. I don’t know why he knows to duck then, but he just knows.”
“Other times a guy is coming on the blindside and he gets rid of the ball before he gets there and he doesn’t duck. I don’t know. He’s just a very, very instinctive football player.”
Patriots quarterback Drew Bledsoe also talked about Flutie Wednesday.
“Well obviously we play completely different styles of football,” said Bledsoe. “There is really no comparing the way that the two of us play, but Doug is very, very adept at playing his style of ball.”
“He gets outside where he can make plays and buy guys some more time and is very good at throwing the deep ball and giving his guys opportunities to make plays for him and then he can pull it down and run with the best of them. Anytime you can watch a guy play the position in a totally different way it is something that you admire and something that you know you will never be able to do.”
Besides preparing for Flutie, Belichick has been reviewing the tapes and feels that the Bills are a tough team offensively because they do so many different things.
“They’re a hard team to get ready for because they do a lot of different things on offense,” said Belichick. “[They do] a lot of empty open formations, 5-open, 4-open, 3-open, 2-open, it goes all the way down. The quarterback creates a lot of different plays on his own.”
“It seems like they’ve found a back now and they’ve got a real commitment to running the ball so that’s challenging defensively as well. We know what kind of defense they have and it’s obviously one of the best in the league so that’s a big challenge for us on that side of the ball too.”
The Patriots will be looking for another big performance from rookie runningback J.R. Redmond this weekend. Redmond, who appeared on the injured list Thursday (foot) rushed for 97 yards last week on 22 carries in New England’s loss to the Colts. They are going up against Buffalo nose tackle Ted Washington who will provide center Damien Woody with the very difficult task of trying to create a hole for Redmond to run through. Should Woody be able to block out Washington, they still have to deal with linebacker Sam Cowart who will also pile up quite a few tackles this weekend.
Belichick said that those two players pose a tough problem for New England’s offense.
“Part of the problem with Washington is when you’re combination blocking with two guys on two, getting past the first guy to get to the second guy,” said Belichick. “The quicker you leave Washington the more trouble he becomes. The longer you stay on Washington than the harder it is to get to Cowart.”
“Anytime you have two players like that, then it’s tough to get to both of them.”
They’ll also have a tough time with receiver Eric Moulds who has posted three straight 100+ yards receiving. Moulds made 11 receptions for 170 yards against San Diego, 12 catches for 135 yards against Minnesota, and 6 catches for 137 yards last week against the Jets. They’ll need to try and prevent the unfavorable one-on-one match-ups with either Antonio Langham and Otis Smith, as Flutie likes to throw the ball deep to him.
For the Patriots they’ll be missing the services of linebacker Andy Katzenmoyer who was placed on injured reserve Wednesday with a back injury. He’ll most likely be replaced by 7-year linebacker Rob Holmberg and Matt Chatham.
They also have been working Eric Bjornson at receiver and have been working Chris Floyd at tight end. Bjornson played receiver at Washington during his days in college and is looking forward to the opportunity at contributing more on offense.
“I welcome being a part of the offense and being on the field,” said Bjornson Wednesday. “If this is my best chance of doing that then absolutely.”
“Everyone wants to be involved, and they kind of made the decision that Rod [Rutledge] was going to be the starting tight end and they brought Chris [Floyd] up from the practice squad. So things have kind of changed for me and the bottom line is trying to get on the field on Sunday.”
At 2-6 New England has a tough road ahead if they hope to salvage the season. Cornerback Ty Law says that he expects them to win each game, and it all starts Sunday against the Bills.
“I wouldn’t be satisfied with anything less than an 8-game winning streak. That’s what we have to do to have a chance to play later on the post season. I don’t even know if that is possible right now.”
“If we can take it one game at a time and win one game at a time you never know what can happen.”
They’ll find out beginning on Sunday.
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