Bills Prepare for Unknown Despite Third Meeting With Patriots
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Familiarity breeds much more than contempt. In the case of the Buffalo Bills playing the New England Patriots for the third time in seven weeks, it breeds the unknown.
Despite the AFC East rivals set to meet in the first round of the playoffs Saturday night in Orchard Park, N.Y. after splitting their regular-season matchups three weeks apart last month, the Bills know they have to be prepared for things they haven't seen.
That's just the way it is when going against coach Bill Belichick, who is an expert at providing new twists in big games. That trait has helped carry him to nearly as many games in the postseason (43) as Bills counterpart Sean McDermott has won in the regular season (49) in his five-year career. Belichick won 31 of those, incredibly making his career playoff winning percentage of .721 better than his regular-season percentage of .670.
"We've got to be ready for whatever they throw at us," Bills quarterback Josh Allen said. "Again, it's going to be a 12-round slugfest. In my opinion, it's going to take all four quarters to win the game."
And maybe more, considering how tight this game is expected to be, with the Bills as 4-point favorites, according to sisportsbook.com.
"We know each other extremely well," Allen continued. "They know us, we know them, so it's whoever can adjust quicker, whoever can show a different look than maybe the first go-'round or the second go-'round than we've seen and maybe throw a different wrinkle into it — that's why Coach Belichick is one of the greatest ... coaches of all time, just his ability to switch things up for a quarterback and make you see different things."
The challenge will be to find a weakness in the Patriots' defense and exploit it. If there is no weakness, they'll have to create one.
"You try to attack all areas of the defense," offensive coordinator Brian Daboll said. "You just don't run outside or just don't run inside or just run zone. You know, we try to diversify our attack the way we need to. And that could change week to week."
The Bills' defense expects the same unpredictability, especially from a Patriots team that attempted just three passes the first time these teams met. That was due to extreme weather conditions in Buffalo that are expected again on Saturday night.
"This is going to be a totally different game with the atmosphere," safety Jordan Poyer said. "... Yeah, I think playing them a couple weeks ago, you kind of have a feel of some of the things they do. But they change so much.
"I think we need to be able to lock into what we do and how we need to execute on Sunday."
Nick Fierro is the publisher of Bills Central. Check out the latest Bills news at www.si.com/nfl/bills and follow Fierro on Twitter at @NickFierro. Email to Nicky300@aol.com.
