FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – The New England Patriots have won three Super Bowls since Buffalo last made the playoffs. They’ve won their last 15 matchups and 20 of their last 21 against the Bills.
Sounds like Sunday’s game in Buffalo should be a major mismatch, right?
Wrong.
Both teams are 2-0 and the Bills lead the NFL with 79 points. So the Patriots aren’t about to take them lightly.
“You never can underestimate any team,” defensive end Mark Anderson said Monday. “They got a great start. They look very good on offense from what I’ve seen, running the ball as well as passing.”
Buffalo followed its season-opening 41-7 rout of the Kansas City Chiefs with a 38-35 win over the Oakland Raiders on Ryan Fitzpatrick’s 6-yard touchdown pass to David Nelson with 14 seconds left on Sunday. Fitzpatrick completed 28 of 46 passes for three touchdowns and an interception, and Fred Jackson ran for two scores as Buffalo overcame a 21-3 halftime deficit.
The Patriots beat the San Diego Chargers 35-21 on Sunday. Tom Brady threw for 423 yards six days after setting a club record with 517 yards passing.
Brady may have the rich resume, but Fitzpatrick has developed into a dangerous, somewhat elusive quarterback.
“The best way to play mobile quarterbacks (is to) keep containment on the edges and have the big guys give us force in the middle,” Anderson said, “and, in the secondary, applying shutdown coverage on the receivers and that’s going to allow us to get to the quarterback.”
The secondary, though, is nicked up.
One safety, Josh Barrett, played with a cast on his wrist and lower part of his hand to protect a right thumb injury. Another safety, Patrick Chung, left in the third quarter with a thumb injury but returned to the game wearing a cast. Cornerback Leigh Bodden also has been bothered by a thumb injury but played both games.
Based on the first two weeks of the season, punters may not have much work to do. New England is third in the NFL with 73 points, six behind Buffalo.
That’s quite an improvement for the Bills, who had losing records the past six seasons and just one winning season since 1999.
On Sunday, though, they can beat the Patriots for the first time since a 31-0 victory in the 2003 opener at Buffalo.
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