No Joshing about Buffalo’s defense
The Bills are one of the worst teams in football, as their 2-5 record would indicate.
Still, offensive coordinator
Josh McDaniels isn’t taking their defense lightly. The Bills do have the 11th-ranked unit based on yardage allowed. In terms of points per game, however, they’re right around the same as the Patriots. They’re at 25.0 ppg, with the Pats at 25.6 ppg.
“(They’re) a force on defense . . . they don’t give up many big plays, they force you to be patient and disciplined and execute a significant number of plays to drive the ball and finish drives with points, which has kind of been the hallmark of this team,” said McDaniels. “They’re in the top 10 in turnovers and sacks, which when you put those two things together, force you to drive it a long way, and then really do a good job of putting pressure on the quarterback and taking the ball away. I think that’s why you see them having the success that they’ve had now under Coach (Sean)
McDermott for multiple years now.”
The Bills are eighth in the league in sacks with 19. They’ve forced 13 fumbles, recovering seven, while picking off five passes. Add in the road venue, and McDaniels isn’t chalking this up to any easy win. The Bills did upset the Vikings earlier in the year.
“(There’s) a lot of challenges in terms of going on the road and playing a division team on Monday night in this type of an environment,” said McDaniels. “We lost 70 yards, I think it was, the last time we were in Buffalo through negative plays, sacks, penalties. We didn’t play very well, didn’t handle it very well last year on our side of the ball. We’ve got to do a lot better than what we did.”
Runners are tricky
The Patriots won’t be facing Josh Allen, another mobile quarterback who might have caused some problems. Derek Anderson is expected to start for the Bills Monday night. The Pats have had issues containing QBs who can run, Mitchell
Trubisky the latest.
“I would say the biggest issue that we’ve had is simply consistency. I feel like we’ve done a very good job, at times, on some of these guys, and then at times, we obviously haven’t. And, I would say there’s a number of factors for that inconsistency,” said Pats defensive line coach Brendan Daly.
“I would say there’s definitely some execution, there’s definitely some scheme things. There’s definitely some things that we can do on the coaching end to help minimize some of the issues that we can potentially get into. But inevitably, when you’re playing good players, good players make plays.”
Rivers makes impact
Second year defensive end Derek Rivers saw his first game action Sunday. He didn’t show up on the stat sheet, but still made an impression.
“I thought Derek played hard. He made a couple of real good effort plays in pursuit and it was great to have him on the field. Just good to see him out there,” said Patriots coach Bill Belichick.
“He’s playing fast and he’s playing hard, so hopefully he can continue to make contributions and help us.” Voice of the Sox
Belichick was honored to be asked to be the featured voice for the opening video prior to the first game of the World Series between the Red Sox-Dodgers on FOX last night.
Belichick narrated a special opening, titled: “How Do You Make History?”
He was asked about the experience yesterday.
“It was awesome. I was honored that they asked me to do it,” Belichick said during his conference call with reporters. “It was great to be a part of that. I really haven’t had much of a baseball background, but the World Series is one of the great sporting events in this country. There’s great tradition to it, especially with these these two franchises. I’m very humbled to have been asked to participate in that. I look forward to watching some of it.”