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Buffalo Bills Links, 12/9: Early thoughts on the matchup vs. Bucs

Plus, remembering former special teams ace Mark Pike

By John Boccacino
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Less than a week after suffering an all-too-familiar loss to Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots, the task doesn’t get any easier this week for the Buffalo Bills (7-5), who hit the road to take on the defending Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers (9-3) in a big Week 14 clash.

Today’s edition of the Bills daily links leads off with some early thoughts on the matchup between the Bills and a very familiar face: quarterback Tom Brady.

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Bills preparing to face familiar foe Sunday: Tom Brady

When the Buffalo Bills traded up to draft Josh Allen with the No. 7 overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft, they found a willing trade partner in the Buccaneers, and the two sides worked out a rare draft-day trade that ended up making both sides markedly better. Leading up to Sunday’s showdown in Tampa Bay, learn how that trade wound up benefitting both teams, then find out what defensive coordinator/assistant head coach Leslie Frazier thinks his defense needs to do to slow down Brady and the Bucs’ offense, read up on the top storylines from the Bills vs. the Bucs, and get expert game predictions for who will win.

Former special teams ace Mark Pike passes away

Pike, who was a seventh-round draft pick out of Georgia Tech in 1986, played his entire 13-year career with the Bills as a special teams stalwart. Pike still holds the franchise record for career special teams tackles (255). He passed away at the age of 57 after battling non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

Odds and ends

Following their disappointing loss to the New England Patriots, we hand out position-by-position grades, analyze how the Patriots employed an extra blocker to slow down Josh Allen and the Bills’ passing attack, hear former Bills quarterback Joe Ferguson reflect on the time Buffalo won a game without completing a pass, assess the head-coaching rumors involving Leslie Frazier, discover why defensive tackle Harrison Phillips was selected as Buffalo’s Walter Payton Man of the Year, and more!

In This Stream

All our coverage: Bills vs Buccaneers in Tampa with Buffalo’s season on the brink

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