Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - New England Patriots, Buffalo Bills Crossover: Mac Jones, Josh Allen, ‘Mondre, Diggs and More

Episode Date: October 19, 2023

The New England Patriots hope to return to the win column as they host the Buffalo Bills for a Week 7 matchup at Gillette Stadium. However, the Pats have struggled mightily against the defending AFC East Champs as of late. Host Mike D'Abate is joined by Joe Marino, host of Locked On Bills for Crossover Thursday. The duo discuss the fate of Mac Jones, the prowess of Josh Allen and each team's respective path to victory, as well as their game predictions.Find and follow Locked On Patriots on your favorite podcast platforms:Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/locked-on-patriots-daily-podcast-on-the-new-england/id1140512627Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1c5ZxFmwg3WbfxAU3tR5Ve?si=k196wH-yRqifUcQQz8SjIQStitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/locked-on-patriotsAnd follow host Mike D’Abate on Twitter, where he’ll be sharing the latest news about the New England Patriots and talking with fans.Twitter: @mdabateNFLSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!DoorDashGet 50% off up to $10 value when you spend $15 or more on your FIRST order, when you download the DoorDash app and enter code LOCKED23. Subject to change. Terms apply.BetterHelpThis episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Make your brain your friend, with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com/LOCKEDON today to get 10% off your first month. birddogsGo to birddogs.com/LOCKEDONNFL or enter promo code LOCKEDONNFL for a water bottle with any order. You won’t want to take your birddogs off we promise you. Jase MedicalGet $20 off these lifesaving antibiotics with Jase Medical by using code LOCKEDON at checkout on jasemedical.com.PrizePicksGo to PrizePicks.com/lockedonnfl and use code lockedonnfl for a first deposit match up to $100!GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNFL for $20 off your first purchase. Last minute tickets. Lowest Price. Guaranteed.eBay MotorsFor parts that fit, head to eBay Motors and look for the green check. Stay in the game with eBay Guaranteed Fit at eBayMotos.com. Let’s ride. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply.LinkedInLinkedIn Jobs helps you find the qualified candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/LOCKEDONNFL. Terms and conditions apply.FanDuelMake Every Moment More. Right now, NEW customers can bet FIVE DOLLARS and get TWO HUNDRED in BONUS BETS – GUARANTEED. Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are Locked On Patriots, your daily New England Patriots podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. This Crossover Thursday episode is brought to you by PrizePix, the easiest and most exciting way to play daily fantasy sports. Go to prizepix.com slash LockedOnNFL and use code LockedOnNFL for a first deposit match up to $100. I'm Joe Marino, host of the LockedOnBills podcast, joined by Mike DeBate, the outstanding host of the Locked On Patriots podcast.

And we're here to get you ready for Week 7 Bills Patriots in Foxborough. The first meeting of the season between the Bills and the Patriots. And a game that I'm sure both teams would like to come away with a win. Mike, always a pleasure chatting with you. Welcome, and I'm excited to get your perspective on this win. Mike, always a pleasure chatting with you. Welcome, and I'm excited to get your perspective on this game. Absolutely, Joe. It's always one of my favorite times of year. Bills, Patriots, crossovers. Obviously, a lot of history between these two fan bases, and definitely a lot of divisional vitriol thrown each way, but there's an awful

lot of respect between both franchises as well, And what a reversal of fortune in this one, the bills looking like every bit of super bowl contender, like they usually are. But I don't think anyone expected the Patriots to be one in five with already a sharp eye on the 2024. Definitely not the season our fans expected here in Bucksboro. Yeah. I'm sure there's a lot of curiosity from Bill's mafia side of things on what kind of the big picture outlook is for New England and what the future of Bill Belichick is

and how they get this roster better. But that's a conversation for another day, Mike. There's a football game to play on Sunday afternoon at one o'clock at Gillette Stadium. And so let's get into the top storylines for these football teams as this game approaches. I'll let you go first here. What's the big storyline here on the New England side of things? Well, the big story is going to be how short that leash on Mac Jones is going to continue to be. Obviously showed a little bit of improvement on Sunday against the Las Vegas Raiders, but

ultimately not enough of an improvement if you're really thinking about what the Patriots needed to see from their starting quarterback to cement him as the starter for the remainder of the season. 24-33, 200 yards, one interception is not going to light the world on fire, but what I would say Patriots fans took solace in is that Mac Jones did look solid or at least adequate in orchestrating or helping to orchestrate the two touchdown drives against the Las Vegas Raiders led the Pats 75 yards in each instance and that's something that will continue to help him get reps at least early in this game against the Buffalo Bills but he's still making some poor decisions and that's something that could come back to bite them obviously if any of the Bills fans saw highlights of the patriots raiders game you know i'm talking about that egregious

interception with time winding down in the first half not a great look for mac definitely not a smart pass and really i think indicative of the problems he's been having all year long either he's trying to do too much or when he's not trying to do too much like on Sunday he's forcing the ball into bad situations and making throws he shouldn't be making so in that regard who becomes his understudy now I know a lot of fans were excited about Malik Cunningham getting signed to the 53-man roster Joe and him coming in and maybe adding an added dimension that the Patriots haven't had maybe a little extra kick in the RPO dimension that the Patriots haven't had. Maybe a little extra kick in the RPO or giving the Patriots an opportunity to get a quarterback that can

scramble outside the pocket and make things happen. He only took six snaps and in the two reads that were taken at quarterback, it looked like the game was moving a little bit fast for him. People need to remember that Malik is a rookie, an undrafted one at that, and has been getting most of his practice reps as a wide receiver. So that's going to be problematic. Patriots have seen what they've seen from Bailey Zappi. Will Greer is still getting himself updated. So four quarterbacks in the room right now, but really your top option and really your only option to start right now is Mac Jones. But if he has a dismal game against the Bills, which he's had in the past, how short, once again, is that leash going to be on him?

And who will the Patriots turn the ball over to if Mac can't finish the job? That's a big storyline heading into this one. And I know Bills fans are waiting to see the outcome as well. Mike, I don't want to open up a huge can of worms, but I do have a huge follow-up question for you. And I'm curious to get your thoughts on how much of the way Mac Jones is performing,

do you believe is Mac Jones' capacity as an NFL quarterback versus circumstances? And I'm talking about huge circumstances, whether it's a lot of new around Mac Jones, whether it's a new offensive coordinator in Bill O'Brien, a banged up offensive line, incorporating some new receivers and Juju Smith-Schuster and Mike Gusecki and of course, Ezekiel Elliott. So a lot of new, right? And so year over year, that's hard on any quarterback, much less a young player, but also circumstances that include what he does have around him. Is the weaponry around Mac Jones good enough to bring out his strengths as a player? So, Mike, is it capacity of Mac Jones, or is it circumstances that have really gotten in the way of his development to this point?

That's a good question, Joe, and I think it's a 50-50 split of the blame pie. Look, there are circumstances around Mac Jones that make it very difficult for him to do his job effectively the offensive line has given him virtually no opportunity to make things happen he's been under pressure prior to Sunday's game was under pressure on greater than 45 percent of his drop backs and you simply cannot have that on average now the Patriots offensive line did a little better job keeping him clean on Sunday, only 29.7% pressure rate for the Pats. That's the season low for that line and his pass protection. And you saw a little bit of change in Mack and him being able to do what he needed to do. But once again, the interception, taking the safety in the end zone, even though

he was under pressure, he still had over three seconds to be able to check the ball down and he had an open room Andre Stevenson there to do it. So these are the types of progressions that you're hoping to see out of Mac that the Patriots just haven't seen. It's continued decision-making. Maybe it's a little bit of him feeling the pressure in trying to live up to a certain expectation or a standard that's been set in New England for so long. Or maybe it's a little bit of him just being unfamiliar with the weapons that he has around him. Bill O'Brien's presence was supposed to be able to correct all that. We haven't seen enough of that correction yet. Is it a timed process? Yes. But the New England Patriots, unfortunately, are running out of time. And I think that's where a lot of fans have some squeamishness as to whether or not Mack

is going to be the guy heading into the rest of the season and certainly beyond. A lot of question marks surrounding that right now. Very much unlike what's happening in Buffalo. You guys seem pretty set once again at the quarterback position. And Josh Allen, despite a little concern over that injured shoulder, is once again playing at a high level, Joe. Yeah, Josh certainly diminished any concerns over the shoulder during his press conference on Wednesday afternoon saying he'll be fine

and that it's just soreness and that type of thing. So it sounds like he's good to go. And for all the questions about the style of play that Josh Allen has, he currently holds the longest streak of consecutive starts by any quarterback in the NFL by a huge clip by like 30 games. And so is his good injury fortunes continue for me on the bill side of things in terms of what the biggest story is. It really is about the offense, despite a lot of good with the offense. We're talking about the number three scoring offense in the entire NFL. The couple of weeks it's really kind of struggled to

find its rhythm 14 points against the Giants I mean everybody's scoring on the Giants and they were shut out through the first three quarters of that game they scored 20 the week before against the Jaguars and they were only at seven points until there was four minutes remaining in the game and I know the Patriots have their own issue scoring points, but as far as the Bills things, there's a higher expectation for what this offense is supposed to do. And you look at it, there's some execution mistakes, whether it's penalties, whether it's drops, some missed reads, some play-calling concerns, just a lack of consistency

and a rhythm that hasn't been there. And so the big question is, how can the offense start faster, quicker in games? And, you know, the New England Patriots just might be the right team at the right time to allow the Bills to get on track. The Bills have had success against New England. I know that's a real big shift in how this has gone over the last couple, you know, 20 years or something like that, but the Bills have won the last four, they've won six of the last seven. And in that four game current win streak, every win has been by at least two touchdowns with an overall margin of victory of 17 points while the bills are averaging 35 points

per game during that stretch. And look, I have a lot of respect for a bill Bella check the defensive mind that he is. And the Patriots defenses have been a lot better against other teams, um, throughout that stretch that we're talking about really the last couple of years. Uh, but they've had their issues with the Bills. And so I'm wondering when it comes to the Bills getting it right this week against New England, is it the Patriots getting it right in terms of their Josh Allen and Bills offense problem that they've been having? I know that there's some defensive injuries that are getting in the way of that, but to me it really comes down to can this Bills

offense start to mitigate some of the questions that have come out over the last two weeks against a team that they've had a lot of success against offensively? Or is this going to be, you know, the Patriots, they finally kind of figure that out. They figure out the Josh Allen riddle. You know, they certainly tried a lot of different things. And that's one thing that you could say about Belichick. Every week that defense looks different and it's tailored to that opponent. Well, eventually, you know, potentially the greatest defensive mind in the history of the game, he's going to pull the right levers against Josh Allen.

And so I'm really kind of curious if who wins that battle this week, the bills get their offense on track or to the Patriots get their defense on track against the problem they've had with the bills for the last couple of seasons. Yeah, that's a great point, Joe. And look, bottom line, I would feel a lot more confident about the Patriots maybe being able to finally solve the Josh Allen riddle if they had a little bit more in their arsenal right now. Obviously, the losses of Matthew Judon and Christian Gonzalez hit this team hard.

Trading for J.C. Jackson is a good consolation prize. Jackson had a very good game against Devontae Adams, matched up with him, holding it for two catches for 29 yards against the Raiders. So J.C. still has the ability to be a top-level corner in this league, and to have that type of player-for-player swap is something that the Patriots can at least know going into this game. They have a chance in the secondary, but that defensive front needs to have its A game, especially if they're going to be missing rookie Keon White, who left Sunday's game with a head injury. He's a big part of what they do to try to replace what Judon brings you. Josh Uche, for whatever reason, has not been able to put it all together. He's suffering with a foot

injury, did not practice on Wednesday. Something for Bills fans to monitor. This is going to be interesting. The Patriots are missing a lot of bodies in that pass rush, and if they can't get any pressure or try to get any confusion into Josh Allen whatsoever, it's going to be a very long day for the New England Patriots and Gillette Stadium when the Bills come to town on Sunday. Well, we're going to get more into the matchups that will decide the game, but Mike, I know you want to tell everybody about an amazing brand, Bird Dogs.

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We promise you. All right, Mike, let's get into some of these matchups that will decide the game. And I'd like to start here and I want to bring up Stefan Diggs, the Bills number one receiver against JC Jackson and Jonathan Jones. And we know that the Bills are going to throw the ball to Stefan Diggs. If there's been anything that's true about the Bills, whether it's against New England or other teams, they throw the ball to Stefan Diggs, especially this year. I mean, the target percentage is pretty high and there's a lot of success. I mean, Steph has five 100-yard games already this season.

He's been really productive. And I mean, there was a point in time against the Giants last week where I think 10 of Josh Allen's first 13 throws went to Stefan Diggs. That's this guy, right? That's his guy. And Steph's had success against the Patriots. He's had success against JC Jackson and Jonathan Jones. And so I think when I start to consider the matchups that are going to decide this game, it's can Stefan Diggs continue to have that success? Or is this the time that JC Jackson and Jonathan Jones really change that narrative? And do they play him differently? Do they try to maybe put one of them ISO'd up on Gabe Davis and double down on Steph Diggs and kind of space the field a little bit differently. I'm curious to find out, but if the Bills are going to get their offense where they want it to be, you know that Stephon Diggs is going to be the

catalyst for it. And Josh Allen is going to throw him the football quite a bit. Absolutely. Without any question. And the Patriots have to be ready for that. And this secondary, again, even with the presence of J.C. Jackson, is going to still struggle. This is a secondary that has its share of injuries as well. Marcus Jones is also on injured reserve with a torn labrum. Jonathan Jones is back in the lineup, but he is definitely still being hindered by an ankle injury

that's kept him out of action for a few games this season. He was on the field on Sunday, but you can definitely see that he's clearly hampered by that. This is a matchup that I know Buffalo is going to be eager to exploit. Jack Jones looks like he may be activated for this game. He is designated to return. We'll see how he continues to look throughout the week on the practice fields. He can be a ball hawking corner, so that's one to keep an eye on, but he hasn't played a game yet this season. Normally, it takes you a little bit of time to get your legs back, and especially for a second-year corner, Joe, that's going to be difficult for him. And let's not forget, the Bills have a number of different weapons, whether it be Davis.

No matter who is aligning in that offense for the Buffalo Bills, these guys can hurt you in so many different ways. So the Patriots have to be mindful of that, and that's going to be a matchup I'm keeping my eye on as well from a Patriots perspective so much of what the Pats are predicated on offensively Joe is the ground game getting going a lot of it depends on that and they did have some success moving the football on the ground early in the second half to their loss in the Raiders that was really thanks in part I think to Bill O'Brien and Adrian Clem coming together and realizing that they had to incorporate a greater amount of pre-snap motion made things so much easier for Andre Stevenson and for Ezekiel Elliott to be able to get carries and get significant yardage on the ground

10 carries for 46 yards for Stevenson, 34 yards on seven carries for Ezekiel Elliott. Both of them had rushing touchdowns. Not exactly lighting it up, but it was a vast improvement from what we've seen. Now, why is this significant this weekend? Well, I think it's going to be significant this weekend because the Patriots are going to try to build on that against the Bills defense that has been known

to surrender yards on the ground and ranking 25th in the league at this point right now 133.7 rushing yards per game 31st in yards per carry at 5.4 so if there is an Achilles heel that the Patriots can try to exploit on the Bills they have to hope to be able to get the running game going. Now, a big reason for that, obviously, and you can say as well as anyone, the injuries to Matt Milano, Daquan Jones, that has definitely been a problem for the Buffalo Bills. Jacksonville, the Giants both found success with both of these guys out of the lineup. So the Patriots are going to try to take a page out of that book and try to run the football. Now, the question is, can they get second-level success

against Terrell Bernard, Tyrell Dodson? To me, the real question is the Pats' offensive line. Jordan Phillips, Ed Oliver, can they neutralize that offensive line, which has really been abysmal all season long for the Patriots? If they win that battle, it's going to help the Bills to contain the Patriots' running game, and really it could help to contain the Patriots' offense as a whole. So that's why I'm watching this matchup. It is so vital for the Patriots to be able to get that going. If they can't, again, a long day for the Patriots

in Gillette and Foxborough on Sunday. Yeah, I think it's a good call out by you, Mike. The Bills run defense has certainly been pretty leaky at times this year. And what's really cost them is the explosive runs. You know, it's, it's not as much the snap to snap, like just getting gashed repeatedly. It's giving up those long explosive runs that really, you know, put the other team's offense in business. And we know that, you know, when Josh Allen's playing quarterback for the other team, other teams want to come in and run the ball and shorten the game and keep 17 on the sideline.

And part of the Bills' entire strategy is, well, we want to try to score points quickly and make you a one-dimensional operation. And so that's going to be an interesting battle of tension there. But certainly I do agree with you that the Patriots testing the Bills' run defense and having success there will be huge in their efforts to try to win the football game. I want to call out one more matchup here that I think is important. And you kind of tease this a little bit throughout our conversation, but it is the Bills pass rush against Mac Jones. And I know that the Bills pass rush is really facing the Patriots offensive line, but we know the challenges is that the offensive line has had. We know the

challenges that Mac Jones has under pressure. Well, the Bills' pass rush has been really good. They're number one in pressure rate this season at 31.1%. No other team is above 30%. They're number one in sack rate at 11.6%. Next closest team is 10.1%, and they also have the most sacks in terms of total volume. And with Sean McDermott taking over the defensive coordinator

responsibilities for the Bills, the defense has a different look and feel where they're leaning into some exotic pressure looks, not necessarily blitzes, but simulated pressures, creeper pressures, some different types of stunts, and they're getting more healthy on the defensive line with Rousseau, with Von Miller now back. And so that's going to be big for the Bills. If they can get the Patriots into a situation where they do have to throw the football and get them out of that rushing offense that we both anticipate being a big part of their formula, can the Bills continue to have success rushing the passer against a team that's had some challenges keeping Mac Jones clean? Yeah,

without question. And again, it's going to determine whether or not the edges can be sealed by the Patriots offensive line. And Trent Brown has done an adequate job when he's locked in and in there on the left side, protecting Mac Jones' blind side. However, teams are being savvy and they're attacking the right. Case in point, Max Crosby on Sunday against the New England Patriots. A lot of that pressure came from the right side.

The safety sack to end the game came from the right, where not only was Vardarian Lowe put in a situation that was nearly impossible for him to succeed in, the guy that he had helping him was Mike Gusecki, who was not exactly known for his blocking prowess. So New England has a problem there. I expect to see Farrell Brown in a lot of blocking packages. I expect to see Ezekiel Elliott helping out in pass protection. These are things that these two guys have done well, blocking for the run and blocking to protect the pass. That's going to be key, but this Buffalo pass rush is one of the most fearsome in the league, like you said. And Mac Jones simply has not done a good enough job

of being able to hold up against a pass rush when the pocket starts to collapse. That's a big matchup this weekend, and I'm definitely going to have my eye on that one as well. All right, Mike and I, in just a moment, we're going to talk about the path to victory for each team here and, of course, offer a prediction. Stick with us here, but first you need to snap into action this NFL season

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And look, the bills are favored by, is it 8.5? It may have went up a little bit. The over-under is set at 41 and a half. I think if I read correctly, that's the biggest underdog that Belichick has been at home. So what do they need to do to get an upset, I guess, is the way we're looking at this. Yeah, not only is it the largest Bill Belichick underdog line,

it is also the biggest deficit that they've faced in 31 years being the home team. It's been a long time since the Patriots have been this much of an underdog at home. And unfortunately, it's not a situation where we're looking at Mac Jones needs to get to 350 or 300 yards passing or Patriots have to run the ball effectively 25, 30 times. I think we're really down to the rudimentary building blocks of what makes a competent football team. The Patriots absolutely cannot commit costly penalties early on, and they cannot commit turnovers early on. If they want to even sniff success against this Buffalo Bills team, they cannot continue

to dig self-inflicted holes. New England Patriots were penalized 10 times for a total of 79 yards on Sunday. Five of those came on offense, two came on their opening series, and three came on New England's closing final two minutes, ultimately dooming them to a loss, which is a game that they really had a chance to pull out of victory. So if they continue to be sloppy with the football, if Mac Jones continues to make poor decisions with the football, if he's not getting the protection that they need and his offensive linemen keep driving him back by committing egregious fouls, it's something that will not correct itself.

And especially when you're playing the defending AFC East champions and a team that many consider to be a Super Bowl frontrunner in the AFC right now, your margin forever is that much lower. Bill O'Brien alluded to this earlier this week, Joe. He told us very plain out, there's a small margin for error in the National Football League. It's not good to start the game with penalties. It's not good to start the game with penalties. It's ridiculous. Patriots need to be more disciplined this week, limiting penalties and limiting turnovers. As basic as that sounds, that's where New England is right now. Well, Mike, we got to keep in mind this is a divisional game. I know that the Patriots season is not going well.

It's one in five. It's not good. But the reality is it's a division game. We know that weird things happen in division games. Even look at the Patriots this year. Their win came against the Jets, right's a division game we we know that weird things happen in division games even look at the Patriots this year their win came against the Jets right at the vision game and they limited Miami as well as any team has this year right I mean there's something about familiarity there's a lot of inventory of games between Sean McDermott and Bill Belichick now going back to when McDermott was hired in 2017. And so that familiarity is a big, big deal.

And you just saw the Chiefs, you know, they're playing Denver and Denver's giving them all they can handle. Right. And so you, you have to throw a lot of stuff out the window when it comes to division games, especially when you look at it from the bill side of things, they're the road team here. That's it's, it's always, it's always always a, uh, an interesting game, right? When, when those are the variables. And so I think for the bills to, to get the win that I think many expect them to get, I think it starts with finding that offensive rhythm early.

Um, they allowed the giants to stick around and the giants were one yard away from beating the bills in Buffalo when Buffalo was, were they favored by 15 and a half in the game. You know, so that stuff, it matters. But does it? I'm sure that's locker room stuff. That's bulletin board material if you're the Patriots that, you know, that you're this big of an underdog. And they're the prideful men.

They don't want to lose a game. So I think you've got to find that offensive rhythm early. I think you have to keep the Patriots in an offensive rut. I mean, the Patriots have scored a total of 20 points in the last three games. They've scored 20 points once this year, and that was week one. You can't let that offense wake up. And look, you're the Bills. You do have injuries. Trey White's out for the year.

Matt Milano's out for the year. Daquan Jones is out. And Sean McDermott has done really good to keep the defense performing at a high level. But it needs to stay that way. This can't be the week that you allow the New England Patriots offense to wake up. And then I'll say this, and I know this kind of flies in the face of what you said, but I've watched enough Bill Belichick coach football to realize that he has a script, right? And I call it the Patriot script, and you can't fall into the Patriot script where they invite you to beat yourself. And I know that you talked about the Patriots beating themselves, but so much of what the Patriots have been able to do throughout their success is like allow other teams to do that.

Right. And the Patriots are always going to have those little wrinkles and X factors, whether it's special teams. Right. We saw the block field goal against Miami that certainly gave him a chance in that game. Remember last year, the Marcus Jones play, the first offensive snap he's ever on the field it's a touchdown right those things are coming and so you have to not beat yourself you have to be aware of the x factors and the margins that Belichick's going to try to find those those advantages that he can try to scratch and claw right you can't turn over the ball you got to win in the red zone right and so you it's it's a lot of the same stuff that you're talking about because we know this script, this Patriot script, they will invite you to beat yourself and you can't oblige to that. And I know that that's an important talking point

on your side of things. And so I think that's what it comes down to. Offensive rhythm, keep that offense, the Patriots offense in a rut, and don't fall into that Patriot script that really invites you to beat yourself. Yeah, absolutely. And again, it comes back to protecting the football and not committing early penalties. And if both sides are able to do that on an even keel, you're absolutely right. Things can happen. We've seen the Patriots make things happen this year when the game is close, nearly taking both Philadelphia and Miami down to the final possession those games could have gone a different way and then all of a sudden we're talking a completely different narrative for

the New England Patriots in the Jets game they found a little bit of trickery to find Pharaoh Brown and he took it to the house against this Jets defense so a lot of different things can indeed happen but the Patriots have to play smart football and they have to play disciplined football the Buffalo Bills come in playing their A game. It's going to be a tough road for the Patriots no matter what. But I'm hoping that maybe we can prove some of those prognosticators and maybe the odds makers a little wrong and make this one a pretty good game on Sunday at Gillette Stadium.

Mike, I got a 28-13 Bills. You're right about where I am as well. I have a 30-17 Bills coming out on top. I would have predicted a 30 for the Bills, but again, the way that their offense has started the last couple of games, Belichick and whatever he's got cooking for his defense, you just never know. It's funny, Josh Allen even said that this week.

He's like, we know the Patriots are such a week-to-week team. We have an idea of what we think they're going to be, but you don't know until you show up. It's a different game every time. Should be interesting, Mike. Not the last time these two teams will meet up this year. So we'll get this one out of the way. We'll do it again in a few months here.

And always a pleasure talking with you and getting everyone ready for Bills Patriots. So, folks, that's it for us today, but it's not it for us this week. So make sure that you are staying dialed into lockdown Patriots and lockdown bills for more coverage to get ready for Sunday afternoon for Mike debate. I'm Joe Marino. Thank you so much for being here. As always, we kindly ask that you share subscribe rate and review, and we look forward to catching up with you again real soon.