Week 1: Buffalo Bills at New England Patriots
The Bills-Patriots rivalry, well, isn’t much of a rivalry. Yeah, both teams reside in the same division, but they don’t really reside in the same stratosphere: The Pats have won 11 in a row against Buffalo, covering nine of those. And they have held the Bills to just an average of 6.6 points in the past five games.
So, to no surprise, New England is an 11-point favorite on WagerWeb.com for tonight’s game.
This might be the most-hyped game of Week 1 in the NFL, as it’s the return to regular-season action of Patriots QB Tom Brady and the Buffalo debut of Terrell Owens. Brady, of course, didn’t make through the first quarter of last year’s opener before tearing up his knee. But he looked sharp in the preseason, and the Pats are the WagerWeb.com Super Bowl favorites.
Owens was discarded by the Cowboys and surprisingly snapped up by the Bills, generally thought of as a conservative franchise but now getting more pub than they ever have. T.O. seems to play well under the spotlight, as he had four TD catches in four MNF games with Dallas the past three seasons. But things have been a bit chaotic in Buffalo of late, with the team firing its offensive coordinator late in the preseason and also cutting starting tackle Langston Walker.
Remember, too, that starting running back Marshawn Lynch won’t be in action tonight as he being serving a three-game suspension. Fred Jackson, a very capable replacement, will start in his place.
It will be interesting to see how good that Patriot defense is. With the surprising trade of Richard Seymour to Oakland, the Pats have now lost Mike Vrabel, Tedy Bruschi, Rodney Harrison and Seymour since the end of last season.
No NFL team has ever won 12 straight against one opponent. And Buffalo has never won at Gillette Stadium, losing eight straight at New England since a 16-13 overtime win Nov. 5, 2000.
Pats coach Bill Belichick is 16-2 (13-5 against the spread) against the Bills since taking over in 2000. But the Patriots are just 3-9 against the spread in their last 12 home games (playoffs included). The under is 19-7 in the Bills/Patriots series since 1996. New England has beaten the Bills by an average score of 29.1 to 8.7 during the last 11 meetings.
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