The Winning Gameplan for Sunday

[Buffarama]

Run, Run Run!!!
We need to cross up NE.
Emotionally, and strategically, NE will be stacked to stop the pass. The focus will be on Drew, guaranteed.
NE has shown a weakness against the run as well. Everyone (media) is expecting a passing shootout. I say we formulate a running game plan to commit to the run, and throw a few new running plays in as well, sprinkled with a half back option pass.

[venis2k1]

No one is expecting a shootout, i have watched every pats game this year, they can not stop the run. Their run defense is worse than ours, if henry dosent get 30+ carries, Gilbride must be on crack.

[JayWood]

I agree we need to see alot of Henry. NE is terrible in the red zone when it comes to there defense, and they can not stop any team on 3rd downs. I say we keep pounding it at them with TH, and then start throwing to the rest of the weapons. Who is going to stop us, Otis Smith?? Please Drew will have a hay day with that guy all day long!!
On the other side of the ball the defense is getting better each game, be ready for a running attack from Smith, if they can stop that forces Tommy boy to throw the ball, and with not a very strong arm, and the strong winds inside the Ralph that will result in more turnovers for Buffalo to capitalize on.

[TypicalBill]

i agree, i think we should do what San Diego did before their bye week, give travis 35+ carries, besides, he gets even better when we give him the ball more often.

[Typ0]

I'll believe it when I see it. We could have a 40 point lead with 1 minute left to go and be throwing passes. Our play calling has been very inept in this area as far as I am concerned. Even when they say run attack they don't follow through with it.

[Typ0]

I think the biggest story is Rob Johson getting a start and spurring on that increadible two field goal offensive juggernaut before getting injured and not being able to complete the game.

[Marcos20]

Yes.. Travis need to be the man on Sunday .. give him 30+ carries ... NE cant stop noone on the run ...

[TigerJ]

Buffalo may want to throw a few passes just to prove to NE that we can. If we make them respect the pass, they have to account for it in the defence, which will make running that much easier.

When NE is on offence, the wind should discourage them from trying to pass much over ten yards very often. They will also try to run. Buffalo is proving we can control the run if not stuff it completely.

[WG]

We'll get plenty of yards passing if Henry gets the carries. If he doesn't, N.E. will likely end up on the plus side of some nasty weather related TOs. We simply can't pass our way to a victory each and every game.

We're barely beating 2-5 teams that way coupled w/ no D.

I agree w/ buff, and venis, and JW, but also with Typ0. Apparently Gilbride is allergic to running the ball. It's unbelievable.

You guys know how hard I've been on Henry, yet he had his most consistent game of the year in the first half last week and he only had 9 first half carries. We passed 20 times. I just don't get it. There was no excuse in that game for not running Henry more.

[lunatic_bills_fan]

IMO any team that faces us this year already has respect for the pass.Having doe what we have so far makes other teams respect it. Wih most cases against other teams Im usually a believer n the Pass sets up the run for us. In this case on Sunday I believe the run will set-up the pass. But again what do I know Im a freakin Canadian

[Buffarama]

What drives me nuts Wys, is when Henry rips off 7-8 yards on first down, then they throw two incompletes and punt. Drives me crazy. You know they could get 2 yards in two running plays, and they just abandon it altogether. In fact sometimes, they even empty the backfield and take the run threat away. It's a basic flaw in their philosophy that needs tweaking.
I'm all for being aggressive, but sometimes they cross over into being stupid, like calling timeouts with 20 secs left in the half with the ball on your own twenty.

[justasportsfan]

I wouldn't mind beating NE with D either. It worked the last 2 games. Drew doesn't have to make the Pats realize they traded the wrong QB. Our D can do that for him as well.

Our D hasn't played a good O since the raiders. Watson and Fletcher stepped up the last game and I'm hoping it wasn't a fluke or the mere fact that it was against a struggling team.

People talk about the Pats being familiar with Drew's weaknesses and strengths, however do we know Antwain Smith and can we stop him? The Pats OL has been struggling to keep both the passing and running game consistent.

I look for the Bills D to play a huge part in beating the Pats.

[WG]

I hear ya Buff!


just,

Keep in mind that one thing that everyone is overlooking, completely, is that the four teams that N.E. has been "struggling against" are awesome. All four teams have a shot at their respective conference championships this year and I would say that there's a good chance that two of them will be in this season's SB.

Meanwhile, we've beaten 4 teams that are currently 2-5 and three of those teams hung very close right up until the end with us. Chicago, Houston, and Detroit last week. Last week we needed a 1st down on 3rd and 7 or the Lions would have gotten the ball back w/ about a minute and a half left to play.

Sure, our D played better. But let's get real here. Lucas threw the ball right into the hands of Clements twice and the other one wasn't good either. It's not like he was under tremendous pressure all day as he did have plenty of time in the pocket often. Last week vs. Detroit, again, let's get real. What? Schroeder, Crowell, and Hakim w/ Harrington are not exactly Griese, Smith, and McCaffrey.

Honestly, if we play D like we did last week, then the Pats will do much better. They're not as bad as their 3-4 record while we are not as good as our 5-3. In the Miami game, sure we had good D on paper, but it's been the only real game in which we have played good D. You can say we played good D last week, but we didn't force a single TO, have a single sack. Where's the beef there? Besides, and again, it was Detroit.

Vs. Miami, yes, we played solid D, but look at it objectively; Miami was w/o 60% of their offensive starting skill positions including Fiedler. They played WRs such as Ward, McKnight, and Baker! Any team would likely have played much worse under those circumstances. Figure also, that the Miami D is good, not great, yet they managed to hold us to only 16 offensive points. Our lowest offensive total all year by a long shot.

N.E. is quite capable of playing that type of D and their pass D IMO is better than Miami's on a whole. All I'm saying is not to expect tremendous success passing the ball just as we didn't have much vs. Miami, and last week we surely didn't light things up in the air w/ only 1 passing TD when we should have had 4 or 5 vs. that crud Detroit pass D.

Say what you will about N.E., but their pass D is head and shoulders above that which we faced last week and if we play the same, we'll have less success passing. The bottom line however is that Gilbride is a fool for not giving Henry more carries and it's gonna cost us.

I'm looking at a very tight game that if Williams and Gilbride don't outcoach themselves, we may win. Yes, the Pats are 3-4, but they're the 3rd best team we'll have faced this year. Far better than 4 of the 5 teams we've beaten.

[WG]

On a side note, I'll give Watson full credit when he finally plays a good game vs. a worthy WR and not Baker, who had never started a game in the NFL or caught a pass or sketchy Lioins WRs none of whom are among the league's best.

I agree that he played well last week, but until he can do that for several games in a row, I'm writing it off as an anomaly for now.

[Buffarama]

I keep saying this is absolutely the worst time to play them, its do or die for them, its almost their playoff game.