Patriots In Complete Control Of The Entire AFC Again

By: Steve Atkinson 

This time a year ago the Patriots were a laughingstock with quarterback Cam Newton. It seemed Bill Belichick had no plan post Tom Brady and the Patriots were on their way to losing seasons before Brady stepped in as the starter in 2001. Then, after Brady wins the Super Bowl Belichick spends millions in free agents and brings back Newton. The Patriots land Mac Jones at the 15 pick in the draft and he beats Newton for the starting job.

Now, the Patriots are 9-4 and are in first place in the AFC East and the AFC Conference. Even with Jones throwing three passes it’s a fact they don’t win that game last year with Cam Newton against the Bills. The team didn’t believe in Newton like they do Jones. Mac can actually throw the football downfield and get the ball to his receivers. Jones doesn’t turn the ball over and make costly mistakes like Newton did last year in Buffalo. That was a great team win in Buffalo because they have a great coach in Belichick who knew by just handing the ball off constantly that the Bills couldn’t stop the run. Also, he trusted his defense to make the stops it needed too.

AFC Comes Down To The Patriots And Chiefs

The AFC will come down to two teams the Patriots and the Chiefs. The way things are going I don’t see the Patriots losing another game the rest of the season. Why? Because they are disciplined and believe in their coach and quarterback. If they didn’t believe in one of those things, they wouldn’t be 9-4 and are about to get home field advantage throughout the playoffs. The win in Buffalo in that bad weather environment proved they are prepared to handle anything. It helps that Belichick has coached in all of those elements over the years and knows what to do and how to adjust. Bill Belichick was asked about the performance by the two running backs Harris and Stevenson

 “Again, I think it was the whole team. The offensive line did a good job. They used Micah [Hyde] as a sixth lineman quite a bit. The tight ends and, obviously, the receivers were heavily involved in the running game, blocking for us or crack blocking on some of the perimeter plays, things like that. All the backs ran well; Rhamondre, Damien, and Brandon [Bolden] gave us a couple big runs there as well, especially the two-point play. He had another third-down conversion on a trap play. Those guys were productive. They ran hard. They ran with good pad level. They got some extra yards after contact. That’s important, too. That’s what a back needs to do. We need to block the play for however many yards we block it for and, hopefully, the player with the ball can add onto that. I thought they did a good job of that. They made some tough yards, and Buffalo is a good ball-stripping team. They were pulling the ball a lot, as they usually do. Our runners, I thought they did a really good job of taking care of the ball and gaining extra yards, but it was good ball security.”

The Patriots have all the momentum heading into these last few games of the season. The Bills have to be kicking themselves. They just got beat by the Patriots at home in high winds. Now, they head to Tampa next week to play Brady and the Buccaneers on Sunday. We can say the Patriots and Brady will still dominate the Bills regardless. That must be the Bills worst nightmare. The Patriots are back and are for real. Looking forward to the playoffs when it goes through Foxborough.