Life is a Journey and it's 33 Miles to the Next Rest Stop

Just when things were looking up, the Patriots are forced to shuffle their underperforming offensive line due to Bryan Stork’s concussion. Not good when you’re facing one of the best defensive fronts in the NFL. Even better, Tom Brady rolled his ankle in practice and will be even less mobile than usual. If that’s possible.

 

Division games are always tough. When you’re the road team, exponentially more difficult. It edges dangerously close to the event horizon of impossible when the home team is an up and comer like Buffalo, where the home crowd is going to be totally geeked with the knowledge that new ownership will be keeping the Bills in Orchard Park and the opportunity to see their team erase old hurts with a win over their nemesis, the New England Patriots. That the winner will stand alone in 1^st place in the AFC East is the atomic sauce on the wings.

The loser of this game won’t be eliminated from playoff contention but make no mistake, this is a big, big game. Big. Biggity. Large. Huge, even.

Following the bounce back win over the Bengals, most pigskin pundits and bobbleheads noted that the Patriots were hardly out of the woods. The offense was still a work in progress. Brady was still locked in on Jules and Gronk. The running game was still working too hard for the yards they were gaining. The defense looked more lucky than good against Cincinnati.

This looks like a throwback game where the team that stops the run wins. The Bills pass rush will likely limit the Patriots passing game and Kyle Orton will likely limit the Bills passing game. Stevan Ridley and Shane Vereen will be running behind a game time decision at right guard (I’m guessing Ryan Wendell returns to the pivot with Stork inactive) which can’t help but dull optimism they can reproduce the numbers they hung on Cincinnati. Can the Pats defense – missing Dominique Easley and likely missing Dont’a Hightower – contain C.J. Spiller and Fred Jackson?

Did the Patriots turn the corner last Sunday night?

We’ll find out soon enough.