This Week
The New England Patriots entertain their AFC East rival Buffalo Bills at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro MA on Sunday at 1 p .m.
The Patriots (5-3) are 3-1 at home, 1-1 against the AFC East and 3-2 in the conference. The Bills (5-3) are 2-2 on the road, 0-1 in the division and 3-1 against the AFC. The teams are tied for first in the AFC East along with the New York Jets.
Here are the rosters for the Bills and Patriots.
Here are the projected starting lineups for the game.
The Line/Prediction
As of Thursday the line on the game from Yahoo! Sports is Patriots -3.5. The over/under is 41.5.
My prediction is Patriots 23, Bills, 17 . Give the points (Bills) and take the under. I am 2-5-1 against the spread and 4 for 8 on calling the over/under in 2008.
Tickets
The Patriots are reporting the game as a sell out. It is the 156th consecutive sellout dating back to the 1994 season opener. The record includes preseason, regular season and playoff games.
Tickets to the game, if available, may be purchased through Ticketmaster. You can check the availability here. Many times tickets are released in the last 48 hours prior to the game.
Getting To The Game
If you’re lucky enough to be going to the game at the Razor make sure you check out the links.
Here is the up to date weather forecast for the game from The Weather Channel.
Click for stadium directions, parking information, parking map, specific MBTA train times for this game and a Gillette Stadium seating chart.
Tailgating
Here’s a bunch of different tailgating recipes from Tailgaiting America. There’s something there for everyone and every type of meal or snack. I’ve tried some of the recipes and they’re very good and for good measure here is one of my own.
And with tailgating many people enjoy some adult beverages. With that in mind check out Drink Nation for how to make all sorts of great drinks. You can look things up by name, ingredient(s) or by theme.
Whether it’s at the game, a bar or someone’s house moderation is always the key to a great time. Please don’t drink and drive and designate a sober driver. Remember You Drink, You Drive, You Lose.
BROADCAST INFORMATION
Television
CBS is televising the game to a regional audience, check to see if you’re getting the game and look for your local affiliate. Dick Enberg will call the play-by-play while Randy Cross will provide the analysis.
The Direct TV feed of the game is Channel 707.
For those of you overseas here is some general information on NFL Broadcasts for the 2008 season.
Patriots All-Access airs Saturday at 7 p.m. on WCVB TV 5 in Boston. It will also be simulcast on the team website at the same time. Make sure you check out the Patriots Football Network for information on when you can see Patriots All-Access in your market.
Radio
The Patriots Rock Radio Network broadcasts the game from flagship station WBCN-FM 104.1 in Boston. Gil Santos handles the play-by-play and former Patriot Gino Cappelletti does the color.
It all starts with Gary Tanguay, Scott Zolak and Andy Gresh and the pregame show at 10 a.m. along the network.
The post game starts after the final gun and continues for three hours.
If you are outside of the broadcast area of the stations on the Patriots Rock Radio Network you can purchase NFL Field Pass which allows you to listen to any NFL game live. You can also pick which teams broadcasters you want to listen to.
All NFL games are also available on Sirius Satellite Radio. The Patriots Rock Radio Network call is available on Channel 122, the Bills Radio Network has John Murphy calling the game while former Bills DB Mark Kelso provide the game analysis. Their call is available on Channel 113.
Since the satellite merger XM Satellite Radio also carries all the NFL games and in most cases has just the radio call of the home team. You can catch the Patriots radio call (home feed) of game on XM Channel 108.
Sports USA Radio will broadcast the game nationally with Larry Kahn and Dan Fouts on the call.
Last Week
The Patriots lost to the Colts 18-15 on the road. While the Bills lost to the Jets 26-17 at home.
History
- This is the 97th meeting between the Patriots and the Bills since they started to face each other as AFL foes in 1960.
- The Patriots lead the series 55-40-1 and the 55 wins are the most the Patriots have over any opponent.
- New England has won 9 straight games in the series and 14 of the last 15. The only loss coming on opening day 2003 when the Bills dismantled New England 38-0.
- The Patriots have won 7 of the 8 games played in Buffalo since Bill Belichick took over in 2000.
- The Patriots won both meetings in 2007 pasting the Bills in Foxboro 38-7 in Week 3 as Laurence Maroney ran for 103 yards and a TD and Tom Brady threw 4 TD passes. Then New England whipped them in Buffalo 56-10 in Week 11 as Brady threw 5 TD passes, 4 of them to Randy Moss.
Connections
- Bills head coach Dick Jauron is a native of Swampscott, MA. and was a three-sport standout at Swampscott High, where he was named one of the top 10 Massachusetts prep athletes of the 20th Century by the Boston Globe. He played college football at Yale University in New Haven CT.
- Patriots head coach Bill Belichick was the Detroit Lions’ assistant special teams coach from 1976-77, while Bills head coach Dick Jauron played safety for Detroit.
- Bills DT Spencer Johnson and Patriots RB Heath Evans were teammates at Auburn University.
- Patriots CB Deltha O’Neal and Bills OT Langston Walker were college teammates at Cal.
- Bills DT Marcus Stroud and Patriots DE Richard Seymour are fomer teammates at Georgia.
- Patriots RB LaMont Jordan and CB Lewis Sanders were college teammates of Bills OL Kevin Fowler at Maryland.
- Bills WR Roscoe Parrish spent time as teammates with NT Vince Wilfork and S Brandon Meriweather at the University of Miami.
- Bills TE Robert Royal and WR Josh Reed were teammates with Patriots LB Eric Alexander, DL Jarvis Green and RB Kevin Faulk at LSU.
- Patriots OL Russ Hochstein and Bills DE Chris Kelsey played college football together at Nebraska.
- Bills CB Jabari Greer and Patriots WR Kelley Washington went to Tennessee together.
- Patriots TE David Thomas and Bills OL Derrick Dockery were college teammates at Texas.
- Patriots running back Sammy Morris was drafted by the Bills in the fifth round (156th selection) of the 2000 NFL Draft. Morris played for the Bills from 2000-03.
- Patriots wide receiver Sam Aiken was drafted by the Bills in the third round (127th selection) of the 2003 NFL Draft. Aiken played in his first five season with the Bills before signing with the Patriots in March 2008.
Other News
Don’t forget to join us Sunday for the Bills-Patriots live blog. By creating a user name on the live blog post you will be able to join us and comment along with us during the game.
This is the link to head coach Bill Belichick’s Wednesday press conference on the Bills. You can also see what Buffalo head coach Dick Jauron had to say about the game in a conference call with the New England media.
Here is the injury list for the game.
Bill Belichick coached teams are 14-3 vs Buffalo. Belichick was 0-1 vs Buffalo as the head coach of the Cleveland Browns.
This games marks a string of three consecutive games against AFC East teams as they have home games with Buffalo and New York followed by a road game in Miami.
Since the start of the 2003 season the Patriots are 15-1 in the game following a loss.
New England is 36-10 against their AFC East Rivals since 2001.
Matt Cassel is now 4-3 in his seven starts since replacing the injured Tom Brady.
The Patriots are +1 in turnover differential for the season.
Based on points per game, the Patriots offense is ranked 21st in the league, while the defense is 9th.
Since 2001, New England is 64-15 in games played November 1 or later.
The Patriots overall franchise record is 371-352-9. They have won three Super Bowls (XXXVI, XXXIII, XXXIX) in 6 appearances.
NFL Pro Bowl balloting begins this week and runs from Oct. 13 through Dec. 9. Fans may vote for their favorite NFL players to represent the AFC and NFC in the 2009 Pro Bowl in Honolulu on Sunday, Feb. 8. Fans may vote online at nfl.com/probowl or on Web-enabled mobile phones by going to NFL.com.
Tyler Carter Patriots Daily talks about the teams futility in the red area this season.
Former Patriots DB Jimmy Hitchcock is 38 on Sunday. Hitchcock was drafted by New England in the third round of the 1995 draft and played in Foxboro for four seasons (1995-97;2002). He also played with Minnesota and Carolina.
2008 Patriots schedule/results
News from this weeks opponent:
Buffalo head coach Dick Jauron is in his third season in Buffalo. He is in his 9th NFL season as a head coach and owns a 55-70 career record. He is 19-21 with Buffalo; 1-4 as an interim head coach with Detroit and 35-45 in 5 years with Chicago.
Jauron is 1-5 in his career against New England (0-4 in Buffalo and 1-1 with Chicago).
Since he took over the Bills for the 2006 season they are 7-7 against the AFC East.
Bills QB Trent Edwards has never started against the Patriots. He did play in the Week 3 matchup last season in relief of an injured J.P. Losman and was 10 of 20 for 97 yards with 0 TDs and 1 INT.
This is Buffalo best start through 8 games since the team was 6-2 in 1996 under Marv Levy.
Buffalo has never won in Gillette Stadium, they are 0-6 there since it opened in 2002.
Buffalo is -5 in turnover differential.
Based on points per game, the Bills offense is ranked 14th, while their defense is 13th.
Buffalo’s all-time record is 346-378-8 they are 14-15 in the post season with their last post season appearance coming in 1999 when they lost to Tennessee in the AFC Wild Card game . They last played for a conference championship in 1993 when they beat Kansas City in the AFC Title game, 30-13. They then went on to lose to Dallas in Super Bowl XXVIII . They have never won a Super Bowl title in four appearances.
The Bills offensive line has been a bit porous lately leading to a bunch of errors.
The Bills loss to the Jets could be more costly in that S Donte Whitner is out indefinitely with a separated shoulder and Pro Bowl DE Aaron Schobel could be done for the season with a foot injury. The AP is now saying that Schobel is in a cast for at least a week but he may be able to play again this season.
The BIlls franchise started in 1960 in the AFL and they won two AFL Championships in 1964 and 1965.
In the 2008 NFL Draft Buffalo had one first round pick, they selected DB Leodis McKelvin (Troy – 11th overall). In all the Bills made 10 picks in the 7 rounds.
The Bills have more players on their roster from Virginia and LSU (3) than any other schools. They have 21 players on the 53-man roster with two years or less of NFL experience.
In 2007 the Bills had DE Aaron Schobel and T Jason Peters make the Pro Bowl. They had no First Team All-Pro’s.
Next Week
The Patriots host their AFC East rival New York Jets at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro MA Thursday at 8:15 p.m.
