X's and O's: Patriots vs Bills

Nancy Lane/Boston Herald

The Patriots snapped their two game losing streak against the Bengals last week with a 34-14 win. This week they play the Bills and both the AFC East title is on the line and also a possible first-week playoff bye is on the line as well.

The Bills love to play zone defense. The Bills run a 4-3 front with a Tampa-2 secondary schemes. 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.



The Patriots are a little bit injured right now, and hopefully Edelman will have good games. 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 Dorsett and Edelman on the same side, while having Edelman run a slant route and have Dorsett 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.



This game could very much be a dog fight. Both the Patriots and the Bills have really good defenses, but struggling offenses. I could see a 17-14 game or a 21-17 game today. I really hope the Patriots can show some improvement today against a pretty good defense. I think the Pats will squeak one out today. If the Patriots lose today get ready for the world to explode.

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