Patriots-Bills Odds: New England Slim Favorite Over Buffalo In Week 2
The New England Patriots will be looking to extend their four game straight-up (SU) win streak Sunday when they take on the rapidly improving Buffalo Bills in a game with a tight betting spread at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com. New England opened as a 1.5-point favorite, but some books now have the matchup as a pick’em.
The Patriots welcomed quarterback Tom Brady back into the fold just in time for their season-opening 28-21 win last Thursday night, improving them to 8-2 SU in their last 10 September contests.
Brady, who saw a four-game suspension overturned just two days prior to the team’s Week 1 date with the Steelers, was unable to earn the Patriots the win against the spread (ATS).
New England settled for a push as 7-point chalk, dropping the team to a middling 4-5-1 ATS in September heading into Sunday afternoon’s Patriots vs. Bills betting matchup at Ralph Wilson Stadium.
In contrast to their struggles to reward bettors in recent early-season contests, the Patriots have been simply dominant against the Bills for several years, posting an incredible 26-4 SU record in their past 30 games against Buffalo, according to the the OddsShark NFL Database, going 10-1 SU in their last 11 trips to Western New York.
While New England consistently has put numbers in the win column against the Bills, it is Buffalo that has held the upper hand against the spread, going 6-5-1 in its past 12 against the Patriots, including a 17-9 win at New England last season, winning outright as a 4.5-point underdog.
As demonstrated by Buffalo’s manhandling of the Indianapolis Colts in its 27-14 win in Week 1, the Patriots will be facing a much tougher opponent than previous Bills squads.
Buffalo dominated the Colts in their season opener, jumping out to a 17-0 halftime lead and outgaining Indianapolis’ highly touted offense on the afternoon by a 342-304 total yard margin.
The Bills’ stinginess comes as no surprise. The club finished last season ranked fourth in the NFL in team defense, with the point total playing UNDER in 14 of their past 17 outings.
The Patriots have seen the UNDER go 7-3 in their last 10 overall, but it is the OVER that has prevailed in seven of the last 10 meetings between these two teams, with the point total set at 45 ahead of this weekend’s matchup.
Thumbnail photo via David Butler II/USA TODAY Sports Images
