Stack the trends and Thurman Thomas having his No. 34 retired and nighttime tailgating (for the most part) are among the sparse topics that shouldn’t make Bills fans shudder about next Monday.
Jones wasn’t ready to look ahead, but let’s part the fingers that are covering our eyes to peep some alternating Buffalo and New England stats that illustrate the dread:
The Patriots are averaging 39.3 points over their past four games.
The Bills have totaled 31 points over their past four games.
The Patriots have scored 21 points before halftime in four straight games.
The Bills have totaled 40 points before halftime all year.
Since 2000, New England is 60-18 in October.
Buffalo in that span has 59 victories in October and November.
New England staged a 96-yard touchdown drive in the fourth quarter Sunday against Chicago.
All year, Buffalo has conducted just three drives longer than 60 yards, none beyond 75 yards.
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It’s one heck of a reach to suggest the Patriots wouldn’t have beaten the Bears without a couple of touchdowns on special teams.
Yeah, and Mrs. Lincoln would’ve enjoyed the play a bit more if — well, you know.
No doubt, those scores were necessary during the Pats’ 38-31 victory at Soldier Field. Take out those touchdowns and the outcome surely could have been different had the game been played in a parallel universe. Regarding the actual game in Chicago, Cordarrelle Patterson returned a kickoff for a touchdown and Dont’a Hightower blocked a punt that was returned to the house by Kyle Van Noy.
However, that theory discounts three significant factors First, and most importantly for Bill Belichick, the Patriots spend far too much time on special teams in practice not to have that effort validated at times throughout the season on game day. While scores on special teams aren’t consistently counted on, the fact that they’re rare shouldn’t discredit their value. Think the Chiefs apologized for Tyreek Hill’s game-changing plays as a returner? Should the Packers’ win in Super Bowl XXXI be any less meaningful simply because Desmond Howard returned the ball a then-Super Bowl record 99 yards for a touchdown? Want the Patriots to wipe away the entire 2001 postseason? (That was a rhetorical question, Raiders, Steelers and Rams.)
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