Adjust your calendars, New England Patriots fans.
The NFL announced Tuesday the Patriots’ Week 16 matchup against the Buffalo Bills has been scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 21. Kickoff for that game is set for 4:30 p.m. ET at Gillette Stadium.
Pats-Bills will be one of three Saturday games during the penultimate weekend of the NFL regular season. Houston Texans vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers will kick off at 1 p.m. ET, and the Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers will square off in primetime at 8:15 p.m. ET.
WEEK 16 TRIPLEHEADER ON @NFLNETWORK!
Saturday, December 21. We've got football. 🏈 pic.twitter.com/snl6ZLJ6ER
— NFL (@NFL) November 12, 2019
The Patriots’ first meeting with the Bills was their tightest contest of the season to date, with New England riding a dominant defensive/special teams performance to a 16-10 victory at New Era Stadium in Week 4.
Buffalo currently sits second in the AFC East at 6-3 but has dropped two of its last three games. New England, which is coming off its bye week, lost to the Baltimore Ravens last Sunday night to fall to 8-1 on the season.
The Bills never have beaten Tom Brady on his home turf, going 0-15 at Gillette in games the Patriots quarterback started and finished. They’ve won in Foxboro, Mass., just twice since 2001, beating third-stringer Jacoby Brissett in 2016 and taking the 2014 regular-season finale — a meaningless game for New England that Brady exited at halftime.
The home stretch of this Patriots season begins this Sunday with a road matchup against the Philadelphia Eagles, followed by games vs. Dallas, at Houston, vs. Kansas City, at Cincinnati and vs. Buffalo and Miami.
