Peter King believes Monday night presented cause for concern for the Buffalo Bills.
Trying to get inside the mind of the Patriots wasn’t very difficult for Buffalo’s defense in Week 13. New England ran the football on all but three plays at Highmark Stadium, and despite this historic consistency, the Bills didn’t really have much of an answer. The Patriots ran it with great success — all things considered — and ground their way to a 14-10 win.
King was left feeling a bit uneasy about Buffalo after watching it get punished on its own turf.
“I think one of the interesting things about this game was that even though one of the runs came on a very long run, it seemed like the Bills were slightly scoffing postgame that the Patriots ran it down their throat,” King told Mike Florio on Tuesday on NBC Sports. “I would only say, Patriots ran it 46 times. One of them was that long run. On the other 45 plays when the Bills constantly knew exactly what was coming, the Patriots averaged 3.5 yards per carry. That is good in that kind of environment, in that kind of weather when the opposition knows exactly what’s coming. If you can get 3.5 yards every time you run it, that means you are dictating — on a horrible night — your will on the opponents. I think that’s a little worrisome for Buffalo coming up for the rest of the year.”
Peter Schrager sang a tune similar to King. The fellow NFL writer and analyst believes the Bills should feel demoralized after getting punked by their longtime division rival.
Buffalo and New England will meet again in a few weeks, but it’s tough to have any confidence in the Bills’ hopes of notching a Week 16 victory in Foxboro.
