By Chris Horne, howiGit Contributing Writer, Wrentham (Foxboro land), MA
Yesterday during his press conference, Tom Brady had a lot to say about this Sunday’s opponent, the Buffalo Bills. If you lack the time to listen to or read it, allow me to paraphrase:
“The Bills are good…we need to prepare well to win…the Bills are better than last year…football cliche about working hard…the Bills have good players…blah, blah…It should be a fun weekend.“
All those words are mine, except for that last sentence.
“It should be a fun weekend.”
Now, I know what you’re thinking. This statement is nothing. An uncontroversial, meaningless quote. This is the non-story equivalent to Ochocinco praising his football team after they win a football game. This is not something worth posting anywhere within Buffalo’s locker room. Brady is praising Buffalo’s improvement, as mundanely and predictably as he praises any other team he’s about to beat.
But that’s the surface. Let’s dig in a little, Tedy Bruschi style, and read this a slightly different way. I think deep down, and maybe Brady’s not even consciously realizing this, but, somewhere within him, he knows that he and his pass offense brethren are going to absolutely shred the Bills secondary, and this, consequently, will make his weekend quite fun. I am confident he thinks this because:
1. Last week, Jason Campbell threw for 323 yards and 2 TDs against Buffalo. His top receivers in the game were rookie Denarius Moore and Derek Hagan. Not exactly world-beaters. And, that’s not even to mention that Jason Campbell is Jason Campbell.
2. Last week, Brady threw for 423 yards and 3 TD’s against San Diego who actually has a pretty talented secondary (Sanders, Jammer, Weddle). This week he faces Buffalo’s secondary. I don’t have to individually name Buffalo’s secondary because you already know them collectively as “those clowns who gave up 300 yards passing to Jason Campbell.”
3. The Pats haven’t lost to the Bills since 2003. 2003! Time counts among its “Best Inventions of 2003″ things such as “the camera phone.” Fountains of Wayne were getting spins nationwide in 2003. The Bills haven’t beaten the Pats since that Drew Bledsoe fluke win 56 (dog) years ago. Needless to say, this is a long-ass time to go without beating a team you play twice every single year.
God damn, even if Brady didn’t mean this as trash talk – which, yeah…he probably didn’t – you should now be thoroughly enthralled for Sunday because it’s going to be plenty of fun*. Allow me to take a page out of Brady’s playbook and implore everyone watching this game to start drinking early once again. In my eyes, a 1 P.M. start still gives you plenty of time to get lubed up.
*Unless, like me, you’re one of the 27% of people starting Ryan Fitzpatrick in fantasy this week. Shit.
yes the patriots should win..but the fact that there is even a pats/bills blog shows me you are a bit “scared” maybe “concerned” is the better word. If there was 0% chance they could upset you there would be no comment.
that said please talk to Tom and have him give Welker his first TD against the Bills (in 13 games he has 0 TDs, and only once has 100 yards) and just for me thow another TD to Gronk, both will help my fantasy teams.
You failed to even mention here that Ryan Fitzpatrick is putting up some good numbers in the passing game and the Pats secondary has looked anything but stellar so far this season. Remember giving up 400 yards to Chad Henne. So while you discredit the Bills for their inability to stop Campbell, you must acknowledge your own teams deficiencies in pass D. I bet this game is closer than a lot of people are expecting.
I agree with the sentiment, and I have no doubt that Tom Brady is licking his chops and hoping to put up some big numbers. I absolutely expect the Patriots to win, and wouldn’t be surprised if they did by a pretty good margin. But you’ve got to think the Bills are hungry having lost 15 straight to the Pats, and there’s no doubt that they can be dangerous offensively. I’m a fan of Fitzpatrick’s. I don’t think they’ll win, but I don’t think that means they are still losers. They’re better than the majority of the teams in the NFL and will have a winning record.
You have the Bills at 9-7?
Sure, why not.
Do you have them beating the Jets or Pats anytime this year?
I’m gonna go with no on that one.
To be nice to Tim lets say the split with the Dolphins. That would be 5 loses in division
The rest of their schedule is Eagles, Cowboys, Giants, Redskins, Chargers, Titans, Broncos, Bengals. They would have to lose only three of those to get 9-7. That is gonna be tough.
They are pretty good but I am not sure their record is going to reflect what might be decent talent.
Good point. I think they could possibly win all those games with the exception of the Eagles and Chargers, but it would be asking a lot.
They will lose to the giants chargers and Titans and beat the rest. And they will get 1 win against nyj or pats
That’s fair.
If I was one of those people that have Ryan fitzpatrick I would be pumped. Not only is he looking awesome but the patriots defense has been worse than the bills defense. Plus the fact that Brady looks like he will be putting up 35 ppg so fitzy will be yhrowing a lot.
He sure will and I’d expect their running game to be a nice compliment as well.
The way to beat the Bills is still the same this year as it was last year…run the ball against their week rushing defense, which by my calculation, is giving up 4.98 yards per carry so far this season. Brady might be on fire right now, but it might be a bit presumptuous to assume Belichick isn’t going to take advantage of this weakness. Additionally, let’s not forget that “Willow” and “The Lawyer” racked up 197 yards in the Pats second game against the Bills in 2010 (they combined for 140 yards in the first game). Finally, in two games against the Bills last season Brady failed to reach the 300 yard mark (252 and 140 respectively).