The Buffalo Bills made sure the national Monday Night Football audience saw their dominant performance against Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in Week 8.
Too bad the Bills forgot to bring a competent offense to the showdown against Brady and Bill Belichick.
In their first home Monday Night Football game in nearly a decade, the Bills (2-6) contained Brady and the high-flying Patriots’ (6-2) offense, limiting New England to four field goals and zero Brady touchdown passes.
But it wasn’t enough to overcome an offense that has scored only 37 points over its last five games, as Buffalo dropped a 25-6 decision to the Patriots.
In the latest edition of Billieve: A Buffalo Bills Fan podcast, host John Boccacino is joined by a special guest co-host, Sean Murphy from Buffalo Rumblings, to break down Buffalo’s return to Monday Night Football.
The atmosphere at New Era Field was electric, although one has to wonder what ESPN was thinking, having its Monday Night Countdown on-air talent eat boneless wings from Applebee’s as a representation of Buffalo’s iconic wings. Gross.
Once the game began, the sell-out crowd did everything it could to lift the Bills to victory, riding a dominant defense that pressured and harassed Brady at every opportunity.
Buffalo’s defense came to play, led by Lorenzo Alexander, who at age 35 appears to have discovered the fountain of youth. Alexander amassed a pair of sacks of Brady and also forced a fumble, while Kyle Williams and Jerry Hughes also got to Brady in prime time. Rookie Tremaine Edmunds played well in his first matchup with New England until he was knocked from the game with a concussion, and the rest of the defense clamped down and did not allow the Patriots to get into an offensive rhythm.
The Patriots only had one long drive on Monday night, capped with James White’s one-yard touchdown run for an 18-6 lead.
Too bad the offense couldn’t match the defense. Despite trotting out some creative plays (offensive coordinator Brian Daboll tried everything from the Wildcat to direct snaps to LeSean McCoy and Chris Ivory. To an old-school play from Tecmo Super Bowl: a reverse flea flicker that just missed when Derek Anderson couldn’t quite hit Charles Clay downfield.
Despite the early offensive wrinkles, this was the same old putrid offense, managing just a pair of Stephen Hauschka field goals. Hauschka surpassed a personal milestone, eclipsing 1,000 career points, but Buffalo (10.875 points per game) is on pace for the fewest points per game in a season in franchise history, and the fewest in the NFL in 12 years.
Our podcast duo analyzed every angle from Monday night’s home prime time game, and also gave their thoughts on what the Bills should do at the trade deadline (note: the podcast recorded before Tuesday’s 4 p.m. trade deadline).
Check out our latest Billieve: a Buffalo Bills Fan Podcast for the answers to these questions and more!
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