This Week
The New England Patriots visit the Buffalo Bills at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park, NY on Sunday at 1 p .m.
The Patriots are 5-2 on the road, 3-2 in the division and 6-5 against the AFC. The Bills are 3-4 at home, 0-5 in the division and 5-6 against the AFC.
The Patriots beat the Bills 20-10 in Week 10 at Gillette Stadium.
Here are the rosters for the Patriots and Bills.
Here are the projected starting lineups for the game.
The Line
As of Wednesday the line on the game from Yahoo! Sports is Patriots -6½. The over/under is 41.
Tickets
Tickets to the game, if available, may be purchased through Ticketmaster. You can check the availability here.
Getting To The Game
If you’re lucky enough to be going to the game in the Buffalo make sure you check out the links.
Here is the current weather forecast for Buffalo from weather.com
Click for stadium directions, parking, stadium information and a Ralph Wilson Stadium seating chart. Here is some information on the Buffalo area.
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 regionally and Greg Gumbel will do the play-by-play while Dan Dierdorf will handle the game analysis. You can see if you are getting the game and look for your local CBS Station.
Direct TV NFL Sunday Ticket has the game on Channel 706.
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 147.
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. This game can be heard on XM Channel 102.
Last Week
The Patriots whipped the Cardinals 47-7 at the Razor, while the Bills beat the Broncos in Denver, 30-23.
History
- This is the 98th meeting between the Patriots and the Bills since they started to face each other as AFL foes in 1960.
- The Patriots lead the series 56-40-1 and the 56 wins are the most the Patriots have over any opponent.
- New England has won 10 straight games in the series and 15 of the last 16. 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 beat the Bills, 20-10 in Week 10 at Gillette Stadium as rookie RB BenJarvus Green-Ellis ran for 105 yards on 25 carries and scored a TD.
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
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 15-3 vs Buffalo. Belichick was 0-1 vs Buffalo as the head coach of the Cleveland Browns.
Overall in his NFL career Belichick is 137-86 in 14 NFL seasons. He is 15-4 in the post season, when you combine the regular season and postseason Belichick is 152-90.
Matt Cassel is 9-5 since he took over for the injured Tom Brady.
The Patriots overall franchise record is 376-354-9. They have won three Super Bowls (XXXVI, XXXIII, XXXIX) in 6 appearances.
The Patriots are even in turnover differential for the season which is good for 16th in the league
Based on points per game the Patriots offense is ranked 3rd in the league, while the defense is 12th.
New England is 38-11 against the rest of the AFC East since 2001.
Since 2001 the Patriots are 69-17 in games played on November 1st or later.
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 57-75 career record. He is 21-26 with Buffalo; 1-4 as an interim head coach with Detroit and 35-45 in 5 years with Chicago.
Jauron is 1-6 in his career against New England (0-5 in Buffalo and 1-1 with Chicago).
Since he took over the Bills for the 2006 season they are 7-9 against the AFC East.
Bills QB Trent Edwards is 0-1 in his career vs. New England.
After starting out 4-0, the Bills have gone 3-8 since.
Buffalo is -7 in turnover differential which is good for 26th in the league.
Based on points per game, the Bills offense is ranked xxth, while their defense is xxth.
Buffalo’s all-time record is 348-383-8 , 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 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.
2008 Bills schedule/results
Next Week
NFL WIld Card Playoff Weekend if Pats win and Jets win or Pats win and Ravens lose.
Editors note: Steve did most of the prep work for this post.
Adrien led the Huskies in scoring, picking up his 37th career double-double with 21 points and 14 rebounds. Thabeet had a double-double of his own with 20 points and 11 rebounds. Thabeet also added 6 blocked shots. Jerome Dyson was the only other Husky in double figures with 10 points and led the team with 6 assists. Kemba Walker broke out of a little slump to chip in with 9 points and 4 assists.
While you’re waiting for the coffee to brew on this Christmas morning since you know the kids got you out of bed at 7 AM to open presents, let’s take a look at what’s in the news for the Boston Red Sox.
