High Energy: Patriots, Jones Need to Turn Up the Intensity versus Bills on Saturday
In the 1970s, the Buffalo Bills’ offensive line earned the nickname, the ‘Electric Company,’ for its ability to "turn on the juice." The name, of course, was a metaphor for the line’s ability to unleash its star running back. As they say, the rest is history.
While the 2021 iteration of the Bills has generated plenty of electric moments throughout the season, the New England Patriots are the team that is most in need of some power production on Saturday, especially at the quarterback position.
This weekend will mark the third time the Patriots and Bills have met in 2021. New England and Buffalo took the field at Highmark Stadium for the first time amidst grueling sustained winds of 25-35 miles per hour (mph), with gusts up to 60 mph. As a result, the Patriots wisely shelved their passing game, opting instead to run the ball 46 times for 222 yards. Conversely, the Bills did not alter their gameplan to account for the elements as quarterback Josh Allen attempted 30 passes, yet completed only 15. Buffalo paid the price for doing so, dropping the Week Thirteen contest 14-10.
Weather conditions, however, were not a factor in their second meeting. In a post-Christmas Day matchup at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts, running back Damien Harris was the lone bright spot for the Pats. The Alabama product carried the ball 18 times for 103 yards and three touchdowns. However, Patriots quarterback Mac Jones finished the game completing just 14 of 32 passes for 145 yards and two interceptions. Still, the story of the day for New England would be costly penalties, and the inability of both the Patriots offense and defense to make plays when most needed.
Though Buffalo’s safeties and corners have not been overly active in the pass rush, it is likely that defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier will dial-up some strategically placed blitzes from the second and third level of the defense in hopes of confusing Jones. Safeties Jordan Poyer and Micah Hyde are largely interchangeable, in that each player is capable of mirroring the other’s strengths. They are also the key to Buffalo’s front seven being able to apply pressure to Jones. In Week Sixteen, they did so with success. The Pats rookie was 2-of-10 for 21 yards with one interception when under pressure from Buffalo’s defense. As a result, the Bills’ top-ranked secondary was able to essentially nullify New England’s group of pass catchers, especially on third down, where the Patriots converted only 1-of-10 attempts.
Buffalo, on the other hand, has relied on defensive ends Mario Addison and Gregory Rousseau and defensive tackle Ed Oliver as their primary pass rushers. Addison leads the team with seven sacks, while Rousseau and Oliver have each contributed four. Should the Bills add their safeties into the mix, Frazier will attempt to confuse Jones by disguising their coverages. The 23-year-old seems well aware of Buffalo’s intentions, sharing his thoughts regarding the subject with reporters on Wednesday.
“I think every good defense that we’ve gone against has some element of that,” Jones said. Whether you’re in college or the NFL, I think there’s really good disguise in the NFL and, obviously, this defense does a really good job. Like I said before, just between the two safeties, they just have a lot of experience in terms of years of just playing the position in the NFL, almost as long as I’ve been alive. They’re really experienced and then they’re also really great players. You add that all together and that’s kind of what you see on tape. That’s what you see when you play against them. They play with great energy and they’re great football players.”
Still, it is one thing to know what is coming. It is another to be able to combat it.
How might Jones and the Pats go about doing so? As the second tenet of Cobra Kai would say, “Strike Hard!”
While most are in agreement that the Patriots will need to get off to a fast start on Saturday, striking first may not be enough in and of itself. New England's best bet to capture the momentum on Saturday night will be to play with high energy and aggression. Ironically, Sunday’s loss to the Dolphins may have laid the foundation for the Pats’ potential game plan on the offensive side of the ball.
Despite consistent running from Damien Harris (as well as rookie Rhamondre Stevenson, when healthy) the Patriots offense did not truly come to life until offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels opened up the passing game. When adding a deeper ball to his repertoire, Jones completed five of his eight passes beyond 20 yards in the air.
The armchair scouting report on the Patriots young quarterback is to prevent him from utilizing play action to facilitate the short, intermediate passing game. In round two of their trio of matchups in 2021, the Bills did this quite effectively, using a combination of safety blitzes with stout front-seven pressures. Therefore, they will likely attempt to do the same on Saturday.
This, so they say, is where ‘striking hard’ can lead to showing ‘no mercy.’
McDaniels and Jones must resist the urge to hesitate and thus consistently target the deeper areas of the field on Saturday. Buffalo’s safeties, as well as their linebackers, will strive to take away the middle of the field, in hopes of stifling Jones’ short game. If the Bills are forced to adjust to a more aggressive approach, the Pats contingent of pass catchers may be in position to have some success on Wild Card Weekend. Of course, this game plan is contingent on Jones delivering the ball accurately and on-time on a precisionly-run route by a pass-catcher. Needless to say, it is not an easy task. However, receivers such as Jakobi Meyers, Nelson Agholor and Kendrick Bourne, along with tight end Hunter Henry, have proven to be more than effective in this area.
In the final analysis, Jones must buy into a more aggressive style in his downfield attack to flip the script on Buffalo in this weekend’s upcoming rubber match. Still, aggression should not and will not lead to either a careless approach, or a lack of respect for his opponent from the Pats rookie. Jones was quite clear in his remarks from earlier this week that he is impressed by the Bills’ camaraderie and energetic approach to each game.
“You see the effort that they play with when you play against the team,” Jones said. “They definitely play with effort. They’re never going to quit and they fly to the ball and all that. You watch it on tape and you kind of see it on the field. That’s what they do really well and, obviously, a lot of things really well. They don’t have a lot of issues or anything like that. They’re pretty good all around. Really good all around. They have experience, so that’s one thing. They played a lot of snaps together as a group, not only this year against us and all that, but as a whole. Like I said, it’s going to take 60 minutes and they have a great coach over there too. They understand what they need to do. We just have to go out there and do what we need to do.”
While the Pats may not be able to match the Bills when it comes to internal team familiarity, they can counter their opponents intensity and determination. Perhaps the ‘strike’ becomes the ‘spark’ for the Pats in Orchard Park on Saturday. In doing so, they might be able to generate some energy of their own, making the New England Patriots a ‘powerhouse’ once again.
The Patriots are set to take on the Buffalo Bills for a Saturday night showdown during Wild Card Weekend. Kickoff is set for 8:15pm ET on January 15, 2022.
