After struggling in the first half of last week’s Cincinnati Bengals game, the 11-3 New England Patriots will face off against the 10-4 Buffalo Bills Saturday afternoon. Along with the Patriots defense coming back to earth, their offense has struggled for much of the second half of this season. Given New England’s well documented offensive struggles, their defense will have to be nearly perfect in order for them to find success in Saturday’s matchup.
New England Patriots Defense Holds Keys to Success
Defensive Matchups
Despite the Patriots defensive unit being ranked as the league’s number one overall defense, they have had their struggles defending the run. Currently, New England is giving up an average of just under 100 rushing yards per game and last week’s performance helped improve that number. Cincinnati’s talented running back duo of Giovani Bernard and Joe Mixon, combined for a total of 163 rushing yards on 30 attempts. While the Bengals runners are certainly better than the average NFL back, there is absolutely no excuse for the 1-13 Bengals to average 5.43 rushing yards per attempt on the league’s best defense. In fact, the Bengals opening drive featured eight straight rushing plays which gashed the Patriots defense en route to scoring their first opening drive touchdown in 20 games. Furthermore, Cincinnati’s team rushing total eclipsed 100 yards with just over ten minutes left to play in the second quarter. New England’s defense came out of the gate slow, sloppy, and appeared as though they were looking past the one win Bengals.
This simply cannot happen against the Bills on Saturday if the Patriots have any hopes of winning this game. Moreover, the Bills boast the league’s fifth best rushing attack with an average of 134.9 rushing yards per game. For context, the Bengals rushing attack ranks 27th in the league with an average of just 91.4 rushing yards per game. With New England’s offense lacking the ability to score with any level of consistency, they cannot afford for their defense to allow opponents to control the pace of play by establishing the run. Additionally, the Bills will certainly utilize their top five rushing attack early in this game and the Patriots front seven need to set the tone by making early stops.
The Patriots Must Create Turnovers
The New England Patriots defense must generate turnovers throughout this game in order to help their offense score points. Whether those turnovers are created through defensive or special teams takeaways, does not matter, they just need to happen. The Patriots offense is at the point where they cannot be trusted to drive the length of the football field and score points. Injury and lack of receiver chemistry has resulted in Tom Brady having a statistically awful season. The quarterback’s 60.1 completion percentage is the worst it has been throughout Brady’s entire career. In addition, this season, the 14 time NFL Pro-Bowler broke his streak of making ten consecutive Pro-Bowls which started in 2009. New England’s 18th ranked offense will not be able to beat the Bills third ranked defense without help from takeaways. The Patriots must stop the run and force Bills quarterback, Josh Allen, to throw the football. New England cornerback, Stephon Gilmore, is tied for the league lead in interceptions and if the Patriots can force Allen to throw, their secondary will generate turnovers.
New England is in a tailspin at the moment and a win on Saturday would go a long way in building confidence for the playoffs. While this game will undoubtedly be a low scoring grind, the Patriots should prevail on their home field.
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