Sunday’s Patriots-Bills game is a lot more intriguing than usual
Welcome to Season 6, Episode 15, of the Unconventional Preview, a serious-but-lighthearted, often nostalgia-tinted look at the Patriots’ weekly matchup that runs right here every weekend.
As far as Patriots-Bills late-season matchups typically go, Sunday’s matchup is more intriguing that most. For once, the Bills are playing for something, maybe a couple of things.
Sean McDermott’s team is 8-6 and, along with the Tennessee Titans, is currently holding down one of the two AFC wild-card card spots in their quest to end the longest current playoff drought in the four major professional sports. The Bills have not made the postseason since 1999, meaning they are 0-for-the-century.
That other thing they may be playing for? Vengeance. During the Patriots’ 23-3 win over the Bills in Week 13, Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski unleashed a late-game cheap shot to the back of the head of Bills defensive back Tre’Davious White, earning a one-game suspension. It’s hard to believe the Bills would try to get payback if a game they need to win is close in the final quarter. But if it’s a Patriots blowout, all bets are off.
This is a meaningful game for the Patriots as well. They took care of their usual business Sunday with the thriller over the Steelers, clinching their ninth straight playoff berth and AFC East title. But they’re still tied with the Steelers at 11-3, and despite the apparent it-wasn’t-me chaos in Pittsburgh after the loss, Mike Tomlin’s team closes at Houston and then at home against the winless Browns. They’ll probably win out, so the Patriots must as well. The Bills best revenge might be to prevent that.
Kick if off, Gostkowski, and let’s get to it …
Three players I’ll be watching not named Tom Brady
Shaq Mason
: OK, I’ll admit it. In all honesty, I probably won’t be watching Mason unless he’s in the picture frame pancaking one Bill or another while our eyes are trained on the Patriots ball carrier. There’s no doubt it would be insightful and informative to focus on offensive line play for significant stretches of the game, and there are several football writers in this market who have earned respect and built a following by emphasizing the nuances of an offense. For a strategic simpleton like me, though, it requires a conscious effort to do so, and it’s inevitable that my eyes end up returning to the skill player who possesses the football at a given moment.
In that sense, then, I would say it’s a compliment that we rarely notice Mason, who has emerged as a steady-to-excellent right guard in his third season. We notice him far less than left guard Joe Thuney, for one reason: Thuney has struggled mightily lately, and when a lineman’s mistake leads to a new addition to Tom Brady’s bruise collection, it‘s impossible not to notice. It’s too bad Mason’s quiet excellence this season didn’t lead to different kind of notice. He should have been the fifth Patriot to be selected to the Pro Bowl.
Rob Gronkowski: Over the past couple of years, there’s been a recurring debate concerning who is more essential to the Patriots offense, Gronk or Julian Edelman. I’ve always been Team Gronk on this one. As great as Edelman is, the Patriots have a long history of identifying and acquiring superb slot receivers, from Troy Brown to Wes Welker to Edelman. Gronk, conversely, is one of a kind, the most dynamic tight end ever to play the game. Stunt doubles who can at least play as a passable Edelman can be found. There is no other Gronk, and I’m not sure he has ever been better than he is right now. His last two games (with the one-week hiatus during his suspension in between), he has totaled 18 catches for 315 yards, with half of those catches and 129 yards coming against the Bills in Week 13. The Steelers took a lot of flak for their inability to cover him during his dominating fourth quarter last week, but the reality is that a double team of Mel Blount and Rod Woodson in their prime probably wouldn’t have slowed him. He’s 28 years old, as good as he has ever been, and as good as anyone has ever been.
Tre’Davious White: If the Bills defensive back is plotting his revenge like Ken in “A Fish Called Wanda’’ – timely reference, yes? – he certainly is trying his best to assure us that anything that happens would not be premeditated. In the aftermath of the Week 13 game that “a man don’t do’’ what Gronkowski did and then reportedly texting ESPN’s Ryan Clark that the “whole hood is out to get’’ Gronk, he went into full denial mode Thursday. Check out this transcript, per the Buffalo News:
Q: What lingering thoughts do you have after what happened a couple of weeks back with the hit and all that?
A: I don’t have any.
Q: None?
A: No. I’m thinking about winning [and] trying to get into the playoffs. So yeah, that’s what I’m thinking about right there: one game season, getting into the playoffs and trying to end that 17-year streak.
Q: Five days after it happened, you had some thoughts and you questioned whether [Rob Gronkowski] is a man.
A: No, I didn’t say that.
Q: You said ‘a man doesn’t do that,’ if I’m correct.
A: No, you got me twisted up. I didn’t say that.
Q: What did you say?
A: That I’m focused on winning and we’re trying to get to the playoffs. Stuff like that. It’s all about the team.
Hmmm. The Patriots should probably keep an eye on this guy. If he doesn’t know what he said, he probably doesn’t know what he might do, either.
Grievance of the week
Simple and obvious: If anyone who believes Bill Belichick’s decision to boot Alex Guerrero – Tom Brady’s business partner and health guru as well as a one-time pretend doctor, and admonished former “concussion water’’ huckster – from the Patriots sidelines is a non-story, you’re wrong. Just because you want to believe there’s nothing to see here does not mean we should look away.
Prediction, or when will J.P. Losman get another chance?
Bills quarterback Tyrod Taylor is an enigmatic player. He’s a favorite of NFL analysts who see statistics such as his low interception rate and consider him efficient and underrated. Then there is the team he plays for, which often seems to be attempting to undermine him, such as when he was benched for fifth-round pick Nathan Peterman earlier this season, at least until Peterman threw five interceptions before halftime of his first start. Taylor was terrible in the Week 13 game, throwing for just 65 yards after suffering an injury on the first play that eventually led to him being carted off the field.
But Taylor was good in last Sunday’s win over the Dolphins, completing 17 of 29 passes for 224 yards and a touchdown while running for 42 yards and another score. If he plays like that this week, the Bills will make a game of it. But just not enough of a game to come away with the win.
Patriots 27, Bills 20.
