The Patriots came up with the right offensive plan to beat the Bills on a blustery night in Buffalo in Week 13, but doing the same thing again this Sunday won’t guarantee them anything.
Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels said this week that “the biggest mistake people can make is relaxing and not going through the preparation as if this is the first time we played them.” McDaniels said that the run-heavy approach from the previous meeting — Mac Jones attempted three passes — is “definitely a starting point” but it can’t be the end point because you have to expect the opposition to adjust.
“Whenever you play a division opponent this close together there’s always a bit of a tug of war,” McDaniels said, via the team’s website. “You may have had success with something and then you say, ‘We’ve got to do this again, right?’ But the other team knows you had success with it so they try to stop it, they may do some things differently, play it differently.”
While the Patriots are unlikely to be as ground-focused as they were last time, teams have had success running the ball on the Bills throughout the season and they’re likely to force the Bills to stop them before moving too far in the other direction on offense.