Who thought the Patriots would be playing in Week 15 to clinch the AFC East Division?\u00a0\u00a0 On the first day of practice, Head Coach Mike Vrabel said to the players behind closed doors that his goal was to win the Division.\u00a0 That can become a reality this weekend.<\/p>\n
Oddsmakers have made the Bills 1.5-point favorites, and I can\u2019t blame them because of the Patriots\u2019 easy schedule.\u00a0 I guarantee you Mike Vrabel will use this disrespect to motivate his players.\u00a0 This is a hat and a T-shirt game, and the Patriots don\u2019t lose hat and T-shirt games at home.<\/p>\n
The Patriots are the only team to really hold down James Cook this season, as he ran for less than 50 yards against the Patriots in Week 5.\u00a0 That will be much harder to accomplish in Week 15.\u00a0 The Patriots will be without stud Milton Williams. Buffalo\u2019s play-calling has been more consistent, and they have been emphasizing getting the ball in Cook\u2019s hands.<\/p>\n
The Patriots’ secondary will have a big advantage on the Bills’ Wide Receivers.\u00a0 Christian Gonzalez is rounding back into the form of a shutdown corner.\u00a0 Carlton Davis can hold his own with any receiver the Bills have on their roster. That leaves the TEs and RBs as Josh Allen\u2019s primary targets.\u00a0 This also happens to be one of the Patriots\u2019 biggest weaknesses.<\/p>\n
Drake Maye is a candidate for the league MVP. \u00a0Maye will need to be on top of his game to give them a chance to win.\u00a0 He has not proven that he can lead a team from behind in the 4th<\/sup> Quarter yet.\u00a0 It\u2019s not that he can\u2019t do it, the team has jumped out to so many leads that he hasn\u2019t had to.\u00a0 I also feel that the Offense has been held back in the second half of games because Josh McDaniels doesn\u2019t want to show too much.<\/p>\n How will the team play coming off the bye?\u00a0 There is no question that they needed the break badly.\u00a0 I think it\u2019s cruel that the league has the final bye week in week 14.\u00a0 The league even had no byes in week 13.\u00a0 The physical battering takes its toll.\u00a0 The Patriots likely will get Brendan Schooler, Khyiris Tonga, and Jared Wilson back, but must wait until the final game of the season to get Will Campbell and Milt Williams back.\u00a0 The team cannot come out of the gate slowly, like they have so many times this year.\u00a0 This isn\u2019t the lowly Jets they are playing; this is the team that has won the division for 5 straight years.<\/p>\n The Patriots must be able to run the ball.\u00a0 The weather is already bad, and a run game will keep the opposing Defense honest.\u00a0 It will take time off the clock and limit the number of offensive opportunities that Josh Allen and the Bills’ Offense will get.\u00a0 Dominating the line of scrimmage will go a long way to determining the outcome. \u00a0\u00a0The Patriots must show the same kind of physicality they had in the Giants game. The Bills’ pass rush has been the worst in the league over the past 4 games.\u00a0 Drake Maye from a clean pocket has been devastating.\u00a0 The Bills are likely to keep a spy linebacker in to try and limit Maye\u2019s scrambling ability.\u00a0 If they do that, it may open up other opportunities for the Pats’ Wide Receivers.<\/p>\n It appears that Jared Wilson will be back from his high ankle sprain.\u00a0 I hope he is up for it.\u00a0 If not, Ben Brown has filled in very well; in fact, PFF thinks that Brown has done a superior job to that of Wilson.\u00a0 We saw good pass blocking from Vederian Lowe, but he needs to step up in his run blocking.\u00a0 The Patriots still have two more games with him as the starter after Sunday.<\/p>\n The Patriots forced three turnovers against the Bills in week 5.\u00a0 They are near the bottom of the league in creating turnovers.\u00a0 It will be a must to win the turnover battle.<\/p>\n I see no reason why the Patriots shouldn\u2019t win this game at home.\u00a0 The crowd will be behind the team, and it will be a raucous environment. \u00a0\u00a0I\u2019m excited for the Patriots to get rid of that moniker that they have just beat up on weak opponents, and that they are a product of the historically weak schedule.\u00a0 It\u2019s incredibly difficult to win 10 games in a row, and the Patriots have not been given enough credit for it.<\/p>\n The bottom line is I like the Patriots at home.\u00a0 They have the benefit of having the bye week to scout the Bills and heal up.\u00a0 They should have done some self-scouting and see how they can improve in the Red Zone on both sides of the ball.<\/p>\n Sunday should be fun.\u00a0 Go Pats 31-30!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Who thought the Patriots would be playing in Week 15 to clinch the AFC East Division?\u00a0\u00a0 On the first day of practice, Head Coach Mike Vrabel said to the players behind closed doors that his goal was to win the Division.\u00a0 That can become a reality this weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":63325,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-patriots-commentary"],"yoast_head":"\n