I know the Bills are trying to boost Bells’ confidence going into his first NFl game, but blocking pillows seems a little silly to me. He is giving that pillow the business, though. Go Demetrius!!!

I’m almost certain Belichick will work hard to employ different looks, trying to confuse Edwards.

This where the no-huddle comes into play. If we can keep them from changing personnel, then we have a better chance of dictating play. Also, we have to be able to run the ball very effectively. Lastly, Trent needs to make solid adjustments at the line. Do that, and we’re good. ;)

They will have them lined up on the sideline, waiting for the whistle to blow from the previous play. The whistle means go. He will have them prepared we will need to counter the substitions with different looks.

While some comments have led me to believe that the Pats are playing a straight 40 front, I tend to think that they will play a 40 over. Wilfork is still at the nose, with Brace/Wright at RE and Warren at LE, both playing 5 tech.

Burgess is technically the ROLB, but would play like Ware, down in a 3 point stance and rushing almost all downs. Guyton and Mayo play normal at ILB’s, and Thomas at Sam.

I think this because it’s a variation of the 3-4, which has worked against the Bills in the past. I doubt Belichick would deviate so far away from a defense that he knows works against us. That said, I expect to see many base sets used.

All I know is that we on the offensive side of the football need to get really creative to make sure that it’s not Belichick, who prevail against us as usual. First and foremost, we need to be able to run the football. A lot of people expect us to air it out against the Pats, but I really believe that the key to winning the game (on offense, at least) lies in getting Fred Jackson going. I feel very comfortable running behind Wood and Butler, who’re both ferocious run-blockers, and who should be able to capitalize upon the fact that the Pats no longer have their, arguably, best defensive football player (not named Wilfork) on the team.
Another way, in which we imo. should attack the Pats offensively, is by using a lot of draws (and for the love of God, avoid running up the middle, where Wilfork is) and screens to Fred or Roscoe and let them get behind our very athletic O-line.
The third thing to implore, if you ask me, is to utilize Owens’ many capabilities, especially as far as drawing double-coverage, to our advantage (by that I mean letting Lee get one-on-one with any Patriots CB and see who can remotely follow his incredible burst).

I’m by no means saying that if we do those things, we’ll de facto beat the Patriots. What I’m essentially saying is that if we do these suggested things, we’ll stand a far greater chance of challenging the Patriots, but that’s just my two cents.

in games owens has gone up against springs he has averaged 7 rec. 90 yds. and 1.5 td’s i will gladly take those same numbers monday night

Guys, I think we have all seen this movie before…..the key to are offense having success is to make sure V. Wilfork is not commanding triple teams on ever play, double teams fine but when his allowing there outside rushers to just go one on one with are tackles history shows it hasn’t been good….I’m more concerned with are interior line then with the tackles you can always chip with a backer and/or leave a TE to double but when we get manhandled up the middle we haven’t had much success…..come on buff answer my prayers just once before I die

Being a longtime Pats fan, the general MO of BB on defense is to take away whatever it is our opponent most wants to do (i.e. what they are best at doing), and make them beat us with option #2 (and #3 and #4…etc).

With Lynch suspended, there is no doubt in my mind that the passing game to T.O. (and, to a lesser but still very real extend, Lee Evans) is what BB is thinking the Bills want to do in this game. Which means he is going to do whatever he possibly can to take that away. So how does he do that?

Two options (in general):

1. Blitz like the blazes and hope to get to Edwards before Edwards can get the ball to those WR’s; or,
2. Sit back and double-cover, zone+man, whatever, basically put as many defensive bodies back in the secondary trying to keep TO and Evans under wraps and forcing Edwards to have pinpoint accuracy if he is going to hit them.

My guess is BB doesn’t think Edwards is a good enough QB to accomplish #2. So I predict we rarely blitz, we sit back in a very cautious defense, and basically say to Buffalo: if you want to beat us, you need to do it either running the ball without your #1 RB, or else throwing the ball to someone other than TO and Evans.

To be honest, I don’t really know the Bills well enough to even know who your #3 WR or your top pass-catching TE is, but whoever those guys are, I think they are the ones (along with Fred Jackson) who are going to determine the outcome of the Bills offense on Monday night.

A very good post, JohnPaul, and I think you’re quite right about your assessment of the Patriots plan going in to this game defensively. Trent is a very, very good QB against the blitz, just look at last year, but he tends to struggle, when defenses take seven or eight back in coverage and he has to find the open target. That only means that we need to effectively be able to run the football with Fred and Xavier, which isn’t going to be a bed of roses (with players like Wilfork, Warren, Jarvis Green and rookie Ron Brace).