‘”Last time we played these guys they had a great game plan, they were very patient, they did a bunch of different things,” said Mayo, speaking with the media on Tuesday. “The first time we played them it was kind of unusual circumstances with the weather. We’ll see what happens this time around, obviously, these are two different teams and what happened in the past, you look at those games but this is a game in itself.”‘
Archives for January 12, 2022
Wednesday’s New England Coverage
Patriots’ Jerod Mayo would take a head coaching job interview, but he’s focused on game-planning for the Bills (Boston Globe)
Bills are now the clear favorites against Patriots, and receiver Stefon Diggs knows why (Boston Globe)
Can the Patriots finally crack the Bills pass defense in the Wild Card round? (Boston Herald)
Patriots-Bills Wild Card battlegrounds: Can J.C. Jackson shut down Stefon Diggs? (Boston Herald)
Why importance of Patriots rushing attack will be ‘up a notch’ in Wild Card playoff game at Buffalo (Boston Herald)
Patriots special teams coach Cam Achord hopes his group has ‘positive impact’ against Buffalo (Boston Herald)
Patriots CB Jalen Mills placed on COVID-19 reserve, could miss Wild Card game at Buffalo (Boston Herald)
Patriots-Bills injury report: Christian Barmore, Isaiah Wynn projected to be limited Tuesday (Boston Herald)
Josh McDaniels and Jerod Mayo open to job interviews, but focus is currently on the Bills (Boston Herald)
Longtime Patriots RB coach Ivan Fears non-committal on return next season (Boston Herald)
Damien Harris’ toughness has impressed Patriots RB coach Ivan Fears, ‘You have to love the kid for fighting through’ hamstring injury (Springfield Republican)
Will Jalen Mills be able to play against Bills? Patriots CB placed on COVID-19 list Tuesday (Springfield Republican)
Patriots say Christian Barmore, Kyle Dugger both would have practiced Tuesday, 12 players limited (Springfield Republican)
Longtime coach Ivan Fears explains how some players can be ‘caught by surprise’ by playoff football (Springfield Republican)
Bill Belichick ‘open book’ for Jerod Mayo, who is focused on Buffalo but will ‘absolutely’ take Broncos interview (Springfield Republican)
Tom Brady wouldn’t leave Buccaneers win until Rob Gronkowski got $1 million incentives (Springfield Republican)
Giants fire Joe Judge after he went 10-23 in two seasons as New York’s head coach (Springfield Republican)
Patriots Analysis: Playoffs may bring out their best — or that’s it (Nashua Telegraph)
Julian Edelman Bets $100K on Tom Brady Facing Bill Belichick in Super Bowl LVI (SI)
How Patriots, Bills Have Reversed Roles Since First Buffalo Visit (NESN)
With Bills Looming, ESPN Identifies Patriots’ X-Factor For NFL Playoffs (NESN)
Patriots Place Starting Corner On COVID List Ahead Of Playoff Game (NESN)
Patriots Injury Report: New England Gets Good News On Four Key Players (NESN)
Patriots Sign Familiar Corner To Practice Squad Ahead Of Playoff Game (NESN)
Why Patriots Captain Believes Jerod Mayo Should Be NFL Head Coach (NESN)
Julian Edelman Bet Six Figures On Tom Brady-Bill Belichick Super Bowl (NESN)
Patriots’ Georgia Products Celebrate Bulldogs’ National Championship (NESN)
Why Patriots Legend Predicts New England Will Beat Bills In Playoff Game (NESN)
Will Patriots’ Josh McDaniels Be Left Out In NFL Head-Coaching Search? (NESN)
Jerod Mayo Opens Up About Head-Coaching Hopes, Broncos Interview (NESN)
How Patriots’ Steve Belichick Reacted To Brian Flores’ Dolphins Firing (NESN)
Why Tom Brady Called Bill Belichick ‘Best Coach’ He Could ‘Ever Ask For’ (NESN)
Should Josh Allen’s stats in cold weather give Patriots fans hope? (NBC Sports Boston)
Initial forecast for Pats-Bills calls for nasty weather in Buffalo (NBC Sports Boston)
Here’s who Jerod Mayo reportedly will compete against for Denver job (NBC Sports Boston)
Giants fire head coach Joe Judge after two seasons (NBC Sports Boston)
Patriots may be slumping, but Bills aren’t as good as they seem (WEEI-FM)
Patriots place Jalen Mills on reserve/COVID-19 list, status for Saturday vs. Bills unknown (WEEI-FM)
12 Patriots listed on first injury report ahead of Bills game (WEEI-FM)
Matthew Slater stands up for Patriots special teams coach Cam Achord (WEEI-FM)
Listen: Matthew Slater says Jerod Mayo ‘deserves’ to be NFL head coach (WEEI-FM)
Jerod Mayo ‘absolutely’ will interview for Broncos’ head coaching job (WEEI-FM)
Josh McDaniels answers question about being head coach again like he has in past (WEEI-FM)
Patriots place starting cornerback on reserve/COVID list (WBZ-FM)
Two former Patriots return to Foxborough on practice squad, futures contract (WBZ-FM)
Patriots estimate perfect practice attendance on Tuesday (WBZ-FM)
Patriots-Bills weather update: ‘Ice Bowl’ in Orchard Park? (WBZ-FM)
Giants fire former Patriots special teams coordinator Joe Judge (WBZ-FM)
Patriots Place Jalen Mills On COVID-19 List (WBZ-TV)
Patriots Reunite With Cre’von LeBlanc, Sign Cornerback To Practice Squad (WBZ-TV)
Tom Brady Sends Total Love Letter To Patriots, Belichick And Kraft In What Was Meant To Be Final Documentary Episode (WBZ-TV)
Mic’d Up Rob Gronkowski Made Sure To Ask Tom Brady For One More Catch — For $500,000 (WBZ-TV)
Cam Newton Wants To Stay In NFL, But ‘I’m Not Coming Back For No 5-12 [Season]’ (WBZ-TV)
Pats defense prepares for another round vs. Josh Allen (Patriots.com)
From Madden to Mentor: Myles Bryant’s Relationship with Devin McCourty (Patriots.com)
NFL Notes: Ready for a wild weekend (Patriots.com)
Wild Card Playoffs: Patriots – Bills Injury Report (Patriots.com)
Patriots Mailbag: Headed to the playoffs, stopping Josh Allen, looking ahead and more (Patriots.com)
Opinion: Could this be Bill Belichick’s last game against Bills?
‘It’s a simple truth. The grueling schedule, working dusk-to-dawn, seven days a week, draft prep, OTAs, minicamp, training camp, 17 regular season games, playoffs, it’s all just too much for a 70-year-old man.’
Jordan Poyer on Patriots: It’s everything you ask for in a football game
‘“They beat us at home, we beat them at home, it’s a playoff game in Buffalo, NY on Saturday night. It’s just everything you ask for in a football game, in a football season, in this type of game right here,” Poyer added.’
Expect the second-coldest playoff game in team history when the Bills take on the Patriots this weekend
‘The sun will set at 5:06 p.m. this Saturday, and once the sun sets the temperature will drop into the single digits. Expect a temperature close to 9 degrees at kickoff with a temperature around 5 degrees by the end of the game. Winds will be light out the east at 5 to 10 miles per hour.’
Layers, not booze, will keep you warm at Saturday’s Bills game
‘“Spandex layer, Carhartt overalls, probably about four or five shirts blows, hand warmers, hats,” listed Michael Drezek, a Bills season ticket holder on his way into the Bills Store on Tuesday night.’
‘Too cold for them, just right for us’: Bills fans prepare for frigid game day temps
‘“It could be minus 30 and I think you would still have 73 thousand people there cheering on,” said lifelong Bills fan Jason Poch. “I think it’s one of those things where the cold has not stopped fans before, and as long as [the team] show up, they play, and we’re all there to cheer on the victory, no one’s going to remember in a couple weeks whether it was zero degrees or 30 degrees.”’
Heartbreak leads to grit: What the Bills learned from an up and down season
‘”We’ve been through the good and the bad, coming out on the back end, trying to get hot late, trending in the right direction, and we did that. So now we gotta take the next step and be consistent.”‘
Saturday’s Bills game could be one of the coldest games ever in Orchard Park
‘An air mass that is currently sitting over the Yukon Territory in northern Canada will move south over the eastern Great Lakes and Western New York on Friday and Saturday. Temperatures on Saturday are expected to only reach the mid teens with numbers falling into the single digits after sunset. ‘
Bills Backers of Boston ready for Saturday night
‘Since there will be a lot of Patriots fans looking for a place to watch the game, we asked Salemi what happens if a Patriots fan wanders into the Bills Backers watch party. “We have that happen all the time. They’re always confused because, you know, initially they walk in, they see the red, the blue, and they just make a beeline to look for a spot, and then they kind of, you can see them look around and they’re like wait a minute, and they kind of do a circle and then head back out,” says Salemi.’
Bills prepare for extreme cold ahead of playoff matchup with Patriots
‘“My toes get really cold and they go numb a little bit,” Allen said. “So it’s keeping those suckers as warm and as dry as possible. As well as the hands. Obviously, that’s a big emphasis for quarterbacks. You need your hands to throw. Keeping those extremities as warm as possible.”’
Have Bills tickets? Saturday’s game could be one of the coldest home games in history
‘While much of WNY will climb at or above freezing Wednesday and Thursday, an arctic cold front will drop southward late day Thursday. This will spark a shift to a northerly wind, ushering in a fresh and potent bitterly cold air mass that will ooze southward Friday into Saturday.’
Bills fan doesn’t let anything hold him back from attending game vs Jets
‘Bills fan Chris Wood lost four of his fingers in a workplace accident back a few weeks ago. But that didn’t stop him from heading to Orchard Park to watch Buffalo clinch the AFC East last Sunday against the New York Jets.’
Relying on this has helped the Bills offense develop heading into the playoffs
‘”I think when you’re able to put the ball on the ground and be productive, especially on first and second downs, it helps your offense,” Bills’ center Mitch Morse said. “And then if you’re being one-dimensional or you can’t really run the ball, it just opens the playbook for these coordinators to bring all sorts of stuff that offense linemen hate to see. So do quarterbacks. So even the threat of run helps.”‘
What they’re saying | National analysts handicap Bills vs. Pats in the Wild Card Round
‘While they had two signature wins this season — in Week 5 over the Chiefs and in Week 16 over the Patriots — the Bills largely feasted this season on inferior quarterbacks. If anything, as FiveThirtyEight.com pointed out, they underperformed based on their schedule this season. Six of their victories came against teams that were using a backup quarterback; and against the five best quarterbacks they faced in 2021, the Bills went 2-3. It stands to reason that you’re much more likely to face the latter than the former in the playoffs. In other words, the Bills won the AFC East and they will host a home playoff game without us really understanding how good they are (or aren’t).’