New England Patriots Links 12/18/09 - Patriots Looking For A Win In The Wind Sunday
by Marima on Dec 18, 2009 10:53 AM EST
in New England Patriots News
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Christopher Price lists what to watch for on Sunday against the Bills, besides Randy Moss' every move.
The weather. Playing in Buffalo in December has always been a crap shoot. Last season, it was 55 mph winds and goal posts on an angle. New England attempted just eight passes in the 13-0 win over the Bills. It’s not supposed to be that windy this time around, but weather.com is calling for flurries with highs in the 20s on Sunday. Yikes. Wide receiver Sam Aiken, who played in Buffalo from 2003 through 2007, shakes his head at the memory of playing late-season games at Ralph Wilson Stadium.
"I just remember that wind, coming up over the top of the stadium in the right-hand corner," Aiken said. "It’s ridiculous."
Laurence Maroney. When it comes to stopping the run, the Bills are the worst team in the league — Buffalo allows an average of 170.5 rushing yards per game. Fred Taylor didn’t practice on Thursday, which likely means he’ll be a scratch on Sunday. And if it’s typical Buffalo weather, that should give another opportunity to Maroney for a big day. The running back is coming off his second-best performance of the season, posting 94 yards in the win over Carolina. If the Patriots give him the ball 20 or more times on Sunday, things appear to be set up very nicely for him to reach the 90-plus yard mark in back-to-back games for just the third time in his career.
TEAM TALK
- Erik Scalavino Return to Buffalo is special for Sam Aiken. Plus, Thursday news and notes from Gillette.
- Patriots-Bills Injury Report for Thursday.
- Quotes from the New England locker room, from the media access portion of Thursday's practice.
- Belichick Breakdown: Patriots vs. Panthers (3:48 min. video) Watch how Randy Moss helps the Patriots offense even when he doesn't catch the ball.
- Patriots Today: Round 2 with the Bills, Thursday Practice notes. (10:54 min. video)
- Patriots All Access: Friday night at 7pm on WBZ-TV and at 8pm on Patriots.com. Sights and sounds from the sideline and locker room victory over Carolina; Scott Zolak sits down with Bill Belichick to talk about the new-look Bills and break down the Bills' big-play offense; Steve Burton talks with Sebastian Vollmer.
- Patriots Charitable Foundation hosted over 250 kids from Salvation Army centers throughout Massachusetts and Rhode Island at Gillette Stadium for the 17th annual Children's Holiday Party.
LOCAL LINKS
- Ian Rapoport notes Jarvis Green has been impressive filling in for Richard Seymour, hardly coming off the field.
- Christopher Price feels the Patriots will be getting a special effort from the Bills, and they aren't expecting any gifts like they received in the season opener.
- Mark Farinella discusses on how the weather affects the Patriots practice preparations.
- Glen Farley reports the Patriots are still blown away by their windy win over the Bills last December in Buffalo, with the officials halting play to adjust the tilting goalposts and Gostkowski's kick stopping mid-air and veering sharply to the right.
- Mike Reiss notes the Patriots have been prepping for a December game in Buffalo.
- Monique Walker notes that injuries, as well as the play of rookie OL Sebastian Vollmer, has forced the Patriots to be creative in working him into the offensive line rotation.
- Mike Reiss and Tedy Bruschi hosted on online chat yesterday. Check out the transcript for some terrific insight and answers.
- Ian Rapoport talks about the Shawn Springs-Terrell Owens 10th matchup reunion.
- Shalise Manza Young focuses on Harvard grad Bills QB Ryan Fitzpatrick.
- Boston Herald Patriots Notebook: The death of Bengals receiver Chris Henry hit home in every locker room yesterday including the Patriots; Shawn Springs says it will be a special feeling to return to Buffalo; BenJarvus Green-Ellis declined to reveal details of his conversation with Randy Moss on the sidelines Sunday; The O-Line hasn't allowed a sack on Brady in its second consecutive game.
NATIONAL NEWS
- Tedy Bruschi (ESPNBoston) Bruschi's Breakdown: The Patriots need to come together Sunday in Buffalo. (Plus 30 second video.)
- Tim Graham (ESPN) Beating Patriots would be Bills' Holy Grail.
- Tim Graham (ESPN) Bills given little chance versus Pats. Jenny Dell previews the New England Patriots at Buffalo Bills game with the AccuScore report. (40 second video)
- Tim Graham (ESPN) reports CBS Sports color commentator Dan Dierdorf is showing the Buffalo Bills significant respect against the New England Patriots.
- Michael David Smith (Wall St. Journal) Welker's been historically good, which is possibly bad. As Mr. Welker's slice of the pie gets bigger, the team's overall scoring output is smaller.
- Mike Florio (ProFootballTalk) Moss dodges reporters. Florio wonders why the media covering the Patriots hasn't forced Moss to be accountable to the press.
- Tim Graham (ESPN) Incognito accepts Mitchell's criticism.
- Matt Bowen (Nat'l Football Post) Week 15 Picks: Pats over Bills 23-12.
- Sam Farmer (LA Times) Once-mighty teams find themselves defenseless.
VIEW FROM BUFFALO
- Mark Gaughan (Buffalo News) To get competitive, Bills need more elite players.
- Allen Wilson (Buffalo News) New Bills lineman Incognito defends his play.
- BuffaloBills.com Bills focus: Still the same old Patriots. (4:17 min. video)
- Jim Kelly (BuffaloBills.com) Injuries Bills' biggest detriment.
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I know that the mediots will demand a huge Moss game
or they will take it as further evidence that he is ‘tanking it’.
If he does do great, they will of course virtually take credit for it – as if their ridiculous firestorm of criticism is the goad that will affect change in BB’s gameplan.
However, personally, I feel that the way to win this game is to hand the ball to LOMO and run it down their throats until they cheat up to try to stop LOMO.
The weather may make it real tough to throw the deep ball, but if they finally pull the safety in to help with the run, Moss will be open.
But please, give it to LOMO 25 times!!! The Bills can be run right over. This will also keep Aaron Schoebel off Brady (although I’d love to see Volmer lined up in front of Shoebel to see how he does).
Defensively, it will really hurt if we don’t have Wilfork & Warren because so far we have sucked against stopping Fred Jackson in the last two Bills games. We’ll have both Mayo and Guyton this time though – that should make a difference.
Agreed on all points
I think Warren has a better chance than Wilfork to play, but Vince did say earlier this week that he’d be trying hard to get on the field. Also, I think LoMo is ready for a big game Sunday and that’s more realistic than a pass-to-Moss bonanza.
Keep the faith!
i’ll be interested to see how much springs is matched up with TO. relatively speaking the bills have no TE to worry about so the def. will probably focus on the 2 main WR’s and lynch/jackson combo. i think the variety running styles of morris/maroney/faulk will be better than just maroney running at the bills def. all day.
new bills QB ryan fitzpatrick could be dangerous for a weak secondary because unlike edwards, RF takes a lot of chances on his 2 WR’s and lets them try to make plays. and against our secondary that could be a problem. he is by no means a fast QB but has had a feel for running the ball well this season when the coverage allows.
the one player i want to watch out for is Jairus Byrd. now unless you watch a lot of bills games ya prob haven’t heard of him. the man is like a WR on def. he has 9 ints this season and is a rookie.
just a quick note about his 9 ints: cleveland (1), jets (2), carolina (2), houston (2), tennessee (1), kc (1), now he seems to be taking advantage of younger QB’s who are not very good, but he is still a playmaker i want to avoid.
welker (my fav player) had 12 rec for 93 yards week 1 vs bills, moss had 12 rec for 141 yards week 1. and we barely won the game (with … watson having a huge 4th) lets just say i dont wanna have to bet on watson having a huge 4th to win THIS game.
(also on another note could any1 add info about why ron brace is always inactive)
I think we pound the rock and wait for plays to develop
If one of the play actions, gets the safeties cheating then home run to Moss. If LoMo is getting 5 ypc and Welker/Faulk can keep the chains moving, there’s no reason to force it to Moss.
The key is going to be consistency. TD’s every time the offense has the ball (no matter what quarter), and stops on defense. If we keep getting 7 and they get at most 3, we can grind the game out.
If we want to get Moss the ball early, just give him a Welker like bubble screen. He took one of those to the house last year. Welker takes out one corner, Watson picks up the second (or LB), leaving Randy a safety to beat. My bet is on Randy.
My life has been a trivial pursuit. Trivia: where three roads meet.
The more you know, the more you know that you don't know.
by SlotMachinePlayer on Dec 18, 2009 12:24 PM EST reply actions
Pounding Maroney opens up the play-action pass to Randy or Watson, too
If the safeties cheat up, hit Randy. If they drop back correctly, find Watson.
Token southern hemisphere guy - 14,688km from Foxboro. That's 9128 miles, for you heathens.
by Comedic.Sans on Dec 18, 2009 7:52 PM EST up reply actions
faulk/maroney/moss/welker.
I think some of us have the right idea. maroney and faulk needs to pound the ball. faulk should have 12 to 15 touches and maroney about the same if not a little bit more. i think they should stick with hittin moss for them 10, 12yr. passes and go to welker as usual as the 5 or 8 yrd. passes. dont forget the famous welker screen. and it might be good to get Sam Akien with a couple catches to spread it out so they just dont think the ball is gonna go to welker or moss. but if they think that, that gives watson a big day because he’d be open all day! i think the pats have this game in the bagg.
Interesting stat
Brady has only had one 400+ yard game in his career. Cassel had two back-to-back 400+ yard games. This stat is pretty meaningless, but I was very surprised.
Bledsoe also threw more than any QB in the NFL when he was with the Pats
Doesn’t he still hold the record for most attempts in a game?
Make me love you LoMo
Gimme a hundred yards and two tds and I’m back on the bandwagon.
"These players, a lot of other people didn't believe in them, but they believe in themselves. And that is all that matters."- Bill Belichick
Especially if the hundred yards and two TD's comes on two plays of 50 yards each.
My life has been a trivial pursuit. Trivia: where three roads meet.
The more you know, the more you know that you don't know.
by SlotMachinePlayer on Dec 18, 2009 5:33 PM EST up reply actions
That'd tempt Bill O'Brien to rest LoMo for the rest of the game
He’d have his quota of yards, so he’d give the ball to Brady to throw 50 times in the second half. Ugh.
Token southern hemisphere guy - 14,688km from Foxboro. That's 9128 miles, for you heathens.
by Comedic.Sans on Dec 18, 2009 7:53 PM EST up reply actions
so true :(
"These players, a lot of other people didn't believe in them, but they believe in themselves. And that is all that matters."- Bill Belichick
bah! Don't even remind me
We have tons of people expected tomorrow for the game and a family Christmas party. The last two years in a row it has snowed the Sunday before Christmas and tomorrow will be keeping the tradition I guess. Anyway, the Patriots play well in the snow so I wish the game were at Gillette too. Looks like it will be frigid and sunny come game time.
Keep the faith!
i love NE but not in winter
it only snowed 1 inch today in ohio and there is no snow expected for a week.
Is anyone concerned...
about Incognito? Personally, he seems to be an ass- I just want him neutralized both as a player and a potentially dangerous (as in, he may go out of his way to harm) presence.
vince isn't dirty or mean....richard was our dirty player
head butting a charger coach, playing after the whistle….his wife (same size like him) beat the living crap out of his mistress.
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