X's and O's: Patriots @ Bills

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The Patriots play the undefeated Bills this week. Let me say that again, the Patriots play the UNDEFEATED Bills this week. Thats the most surprising sentence I've ever written. The Patriots have looked really good so far and to be completely honest, I can't say the same for the Bills because until yesterday, I hadn't seen a single game that they've played. The Bills started off their season against the Jets, Giants, and Bengals. All of those had to be games of the week, right?

The Bills love to play zone defense. The Bills run a 4-3 front with a Tampa-2 secondary schemes. Off of the top of my head I can't really think of anyone on the Bills defense. Which should mean an easy win for the Pats tonight, right? Well let's not get ahead of ourselves here.

The Bills play a true Tampa-2 defense. A Tampa-2 is a zone scheme where the field is broken in half by the two high safeties, the cornerbacks are rolling corners, while covering anything from 5-15 yards on their side of the field, The outside linebackers cover the middle of the field from 5-10 yards off of the line of scrimmage and the middle linebacker covers 5-15 yards in the middle of the field, pretty much a straight drop back from where he stands. Pictured Below.



I believe its going to be a week of Josh Gordon. Gordon is going to tear it up this week. James White will return from fatherhood and have a really impactful game. Edelman will have good games as well. Edelman will be used on a lot of slant and out routes. For example, you could use play action to draw in the linebackers and have Gordon and Edelman on the same side, while having Edelman run a slant route and have Gordon run a shallow post about 10 yards deeper than Edelman. James White can get the play fake and then run a route into a flat route. Pictured below.



The Patriots are going to beat the Bills pretty badly this week. I think that the Pats beat the Bills, 34-7. The Pats force a fumble and pick the Bills off twice. Gordon returns to his first-week self and has 2 touchdowns, Sony Michele gets a touchdown, Edelman gets one as well, and Dorsett gets one as well.

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