Bills appear to be sitting ducks for old
Buffalo coming off tough loss, has gone 3-4 in last 7 games foe Brady
TAMPA — It’s December, Tom Brady is playing well and barreling toward another division title.
Even though the Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback’s no longer ruling the AFC East, what Brady’s accomplishing after switching uniforms looks awfully familiar to the struggling Buffalo Bills.
To put it mildly, Brady absolutely had his way with the once downtrodden Bills during a two-decade stint with the New England Patriots, winning 32 of 35 games between the division rivals — setting the NFL record for most wins by a QB against one opponent and claiming 17 AFC East titles.
The reigning Super Bowl champion Bucs (9-3) can clinch their first NFC South crown since 2007 with a win over the Bills (7-5) and some outside help on Sunday, when Buffalo faces its old nemesis for the first since Brady moved to Tampa Bay in 2020.
“They are a very tough team, a very resilient team. They challenge you in every way,” Brady said. “Last year, they were in the AFC championship game. They’ve obviously got a dynamic offense and the top defense in the league.” That’s true to a certain extent. The Bills have a top 10 offense and are averaging 28 points, which is tied for fifth in the NFL. The defense is No. 1 against the pass and ranks first overall, too, while limiting opponents to only 16.3 points per game.
The reality, though, is lately Buffalo has hardly resembled the team which, a year ago, won its most games since 1991, its first division title since 1995, and enjoyed its deepest playoff run in 27 years before losing to the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC title game.
The Bills are 3-4 in their past seven games and are coming off a tough 14-10 home loss to New
England in which the Patriots ran the ball 46 times for 222 yards and only attempted 3 passes.
The offense, at best, has been inconsistent after a strong start to the season. Josh Allen has thrown for 9 touchdowns over the past five games, while also turning the ball over the same number of times with 7 interceptions and 2 lost fumbles during the same stretch.
Allen is confident the Bills can pull out of the funk.
“There’s no panic in our locker room. We’re extremely united right now with what we need to do,” the quarterback said. “We’re a hungry team and we want to go out there and prove what type of team we are, not to [media] or anybody else, but to ourselves because we know the type of guys that we have in this locker room and the team that we can be.”
The Bucs, meanwhile, seem to be rounding into form after a two-game skid wrapped around last month’s bye week.
Brady has guided the team to three straight wins and is leading the league with 3,771 yards passing and 34 TDs.
“From a film and opposition point of view, I would say I think he’s playing as good a football as I’ve seen him play and he’s played, as we know, really good football,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said of the 44-year-old quarterback. “So credit to him, credit to how they’re using him down there and where he is in his career. We have a lot of respect for that.”