This Week
The New England Patriots host their AFC East rival Buffalo Bills at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro MA on Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m. The Patriots are looking to start the season 3-0 for the 7th time in franchise history.
The Patriots are 1-0 at home this season, the Bills are 0-1 on the road.
Here are the rosters for the Bills and the Patriots.
The Line/Prediction
As of Thursday the line on the game from Yahoo Sports is Patriots -16.5 points, the over/under is 41.
My prediction is Patriots 41, Bills, 7. Give the points, take the over. I am 2-0 against the spread and over/under for 2007.
Tickets
The game is reported as a sell out.
Tickets to 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 have tickets and you are going to the game make sure you check out the links.
Here is the up to date weather forecast for the game from the American Weather Service.
Click for stadium directions, parking information, parking map, specific MBTA train times for this game and a Gillette Stadium seating chart.
BROADCAST INFORMATION
Television
CBS is televising the game, it is a regional broadcast. The play-by-play duties will be handled by Kevin Harlan with Rich Gannon doing game analysis. You can check here to see if you are getting the game from CBS and look for your local station.
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 Capelleti does the color.
It all starts with Gary Tanguay, Scott Zolak and Andy Gresch and the pregame show at 10 a.m. along the network.
The post game starts after the final gun and continues for three hours.
Check this out for the low down on the Patriots Rock Radio Network and stations in your area.
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.
The game will also be broadcast nationally by Sports USA Radio Network. Howard David will call the play-by-play and Tim Pernetti will handle the analyis of the game.
All NFL games are also available on Sirius Satellite Radio. The Bills radio call is available on Channel 146, the Patriots radio call is available on Channel 122.
Last Week
The Patriots whipped the Chargers at home, 38-14 to move to 2-0. The Bills dropped to 0-2 with a loss to the Steelers on the road, 26-3.
History
This is the 95th meeting all-time between the two teams dating back to 1960 and the AFL. The Patriots hold a 53-40-1 series advantage and have beaten the Bills the last seven times and 12 of the last 13 dating back to the 2000 season. The only Bills win in that span is a 38-0 shut out of the Patriots in Orchard Park to open the 2003 season.
Last year the Patriots won 19-17 in Week 1 in Foxboro and then beat the Bills in Orchard Park 28-6 on October 22nd.
Connections
Other News
This is the link to head coach Bill Belichick’s Wednesday press conference on the Bills. You can also see what Bills head coach Dick Jauron had to say during his Wednesday conference call with the New England media.
The Patriots defense has held the Bills to a touchdown or less in four of the last seven games between the teams.
The Patriots 53 wins over Buffalo is the most over any of their opponents.
Bill Belichick is 12-3 as a head coach vs Buffalo, 12-2 as the Pats head coach.
Tom Brady is 25-2 on artificial turf. His only losses are at Buffalo in 2003 and at Indianapolis last January.
The Bills and the Patriots have played 19 games decided by 3 points or less since 1972.
The Patriots will be without safety Rodney Harrison who was suspended for 4 games by the NFL as well as defensive end Richard Seymour and wide receiver Troy Brown who are on the PUP List. Here is the injury list for the game.
News from this weeks opponent:
Bills TE Kevin Everett continues to improve from his spinal cord injury he suffered in Week 1. It is anticipated he will be moved to a rehab facility closer to his home in Katy, TX. He is expected to be standing and walking on his own in days or weeks, not months. The response to his injuries is truly remarkable and Patriots fans everywhere wish him well in his recovery. When a Patriots fan thinks of Everett, he is remembering the late Darryl Stingley.
The Bills players had special T-Shirts made to honor Everett. They bear his name and number on the back and a photo of a team huddle on the front with the words ‘team,’ ‘belief,’ ‘faith,’ ‘strong,’ ‘together’ and ‘hope’. Fans can purchase the Everett T-shirt online. Net proceeds will benefit spinal cord injury research, treatment and programs.
You can send Everett a message here.
The Buffalo media has been all over the 0-2 Bills, especially their struggling quarterback, J.P. Losman. Losman can’t really deny that the offense has been awful but on Monday he was accusing reporters of trying to “divide” the Bills players.
Losman also wants to open the offense up.
“I think we just need to open it up a little bit more in the beginning,” said Losman following the loss to the Steelers Sunday. “I think we’re back on our heels a little bit in the beginning of the game and it’s tricky because we were running the ball well and we wanted to stick to it. I think attacking more early on in the game might help us out. As you can see we opened it up a little bit in the second half. We had some good things happen to us.”
Head coach Dick Jauron wants a more methodical approach while using rookie Marshawn Lynch as his feature back rather than opening it up.
Losman is said to bear a resemblance to comedian Adam Sandler.
Next Week
The Patriots will visit the Cincinnati Bengals on Monday night at 8:15 p.m. at Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati OH.
