Bills-Patriots prediction roundup: Will it be an inheritance of perfection for Tom Brady?
We don't know who will play quarterback, but the question is whether they will win.
COMMENTARY
Here’s where the fun begins.
Come Monday morning, our long, national nightmare goes away for good. Patriots quarterback Tom Brady will waltz into the team’s training facility at Gillette Stadium, ready to make preparations for the Cleveland Browns, and Deflategate, 21 months of misled accusations, legal battles, and poor courtroom sketches, will officially — mercifully — be over.
Brady may come off his four-game suspension inheriting a 4-0 team if head coach Bill Belichick can craft another plan akin to the one he did against the Houston Texans on Sunday vs. the Buffalo Bills. It wasn’t long ago that 3-1 or 2-2 figured to be the best-case scenarios for a team playing the first quarter of its season without the four-time Super Bowl champion.
Nah, 4-0 will do. That’s how much better the Patriots are than everybody else.
You could make the argument for the defending Super Bowl champions still rolling along with rookie quarterback Trevor Siemian, but what the Patriots have done thus far has been the talk of the NFL. Jimmy Garoppolo played a game-and-a-half looking like an All-Pro. Rookie Jacoby Brissett did just enough to keep the Pats perfect. And everyone just scratches their heads, wondering how Belichick is doing it, as if this is the first time the coach has pulled excellence out of his hooded sweatshirt.
Add Tom Brady to the mix — perhaps a vengeful Tom Brady — and everybody else is screwed.
It’s too early to talk about first-round byes, undefeated seasons, Super Bowl trophies, and AFC East titles (well, actually…) We should know better.
But we will.
Here come the Patriots, fully stocked and loaded. Brady will get the keys to perfection, with the opportunity to handle an historic drive.
Deflategate dies on Monday. The funeral won’t end until February.
This week’s picks:
ESPN.com: All Pats.
Jay Skurski, Buffalo News: Patriots 24, Bills 17. “Ryan deserves credit for rallying the troops last week against the Cardinals, but will find himself right back on the hot seat with a loss to his foils.”
Greg Cote, Miami Herald: “It’s still the Patriots, at home, with extra rest after playing last Thursday, against a team it has beaten 23 of past 25 meetings.”
Pete Prisco, CBS Sports: Patriots 27, Bills 17. “The Bills got their first victory against the Cardinals, and looked good doing it. This will be a lot tougher. The Patriots will likely have Jimmy Garoppolo back for this one. He was on fire last time out against Miami, and will do so again here. Patriots continue to roll.”
CBS Sports staff: Six out of eight pick New England (-6 Patriots)
FiveThirtyEight: Patriots with a 76 percent chance of winning.
Mike Florio, Pro Football Talk: Patriots 24, Bills 10. “Jimmy Garoppolo, Jacoby Brissett, Julian Edelman, A.J. Derby, Drew Bledsoe, Tony Eason, Steve Grogan. It doesn’t matter. With 10 days to get ready for the last game of the #DeflateGate suspension, Bill Belichick would win even with Stephen Gostkowski at quarterback.”
Michael David Smith, Pro Football Talk: Patriots 22, Bills 9. “Although I was impressed with the way Rex Ryan had his guys ready to play last week against the Cardinals, I wouldn’t pick them to win at New England whether it’s Tom Brady, Jimmy Garoppolo, Jacoby Brissett or Julian Edelmanat quarterback.”
MassLive staff: Four out of five pick the Patriots.
Vinnie Iyer, Sporting News: Patriots 33, Bills 13. “New England should be able to hand its quarterback job back to a healthy-enough Jimmy Garoppolo for one more game before Tom Brady returns. Buffalo is the weakest opponent overall of the first four games, and this will be the chance to get Rob Gronkowski a little loose as a pre-bye tuneup. On the flip side, New England faces a Bills offense with more limitations and predictability — pound it often, throw it deep — than the Texans team it just shut out.”
Peter Schrager, Foxsports.com: Patriots 24, Bills 17. “Rex Ryan is 1-9 against Bill Belichick and the Patriots since 2011, and New England is one win away from going 4-0 without Tom Brady. The key here will be how Josh McDaniels creates a new offensive game plan to suit his quarterback. I think it’ll be Jimmy Garoppolo, but don’t be shocked if there are some tricks up McDaniels’ sleeve. He’s dialed up all the right numbers this season thus far. Can’t pick against New England at home.”
Bryan Altman, CBS Sports: Patriots. “So the Buffalo Bills upset the Arizona Cardinals at home and now we’re supposed to buy the brash bravado coming from Rex Ryan and Co. as they head to New England? Yawn. I’ll pass.”
Michael Hurley, CBS Boston: Patriots (-4.5). “I’ll eat some crow for calling the Bills the worst team in the NFL last week, only to see them roll the Cardinals. I’ll wear that. But that’s about as far as I’m willing to go here. The Bills are still the Bills, and this game is still being played in Foxboro, Massachusetts.”
USA Today staff: All New England.
Gerry Dulac, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Patriots 26, Bills 21. “Well, the Bills and Rex Ryan get another chance to beat the Patriots, something they or other teams in the AFC East just haven’t been able to do in Foxboro. Their chances might increase if the Patriots, who have won 21 of the past 22 division games at home, can’t find a quarterback. But only slightly.”
SB Nation staff: All Patriots.
Elliot Harrison, NFL.com: Patriots 20, Bills 14. “Let’s strip this Rex Ryan-vs.-Bill Belichick matchup down to the bare essentials. Well, I’d rather not strip either of those guys, but if I had to choose … We know Ryan has tattoos. Guessing he has some hidden ones we haven’t seen, too: Maybe Xs and Os, the 46, barbed wire of some sort? Still, nothing, nothing tops the sweater vest, especially when the Bills win. Ryan announced that Buffalo coordinator Dennis Thurman is calling the defensive plays. That’s fantastic, but if the Bills can’t get the run game going, this one won’t be close. The good news for Buffalo is, if Jacoby Brissett starts again for the Patriots, New England will have to run the football, and Thurman’s D has only allowed 3.4 yards per crack this season. One way or another, Rex’s team can’t get off to another slow start. The Patriots are 77-0 at Gillette Stadium when leading at halftime.”
Jimmy Kempski, Philly Voice: Patriots (-4.5). “The Patri*ts almost never lose at home, because they cheat.”
Globe staff: All Patriots (no line).
It says here: Patriots 17, Bills 14. Maybe we’re putting too much into the way the Bills handled the Cardinals last week, while wondering if the Patriots can pull off a second-straight coaching clinic without the experienced aid of a veteran quarterback, but this setting feels ripe for an upset. Oh, please. It won’t happen, but it will look that way for much of the afternoon. Pats win late.
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