New England offense vs. Buffalo defense

	PATRIOTS OFFENSE
	Ranking in the NFL:
	Run	25
	Pass	5
	Tot. Yds.	8
	Scoring	9
	Int's allowed	12
	Sacks allowed	30
	BILLS DEFENSE
	Ranking in the NFL:
	vs. Run	3
	vs. Pass	3
	Total yds. allowed	2
	# of Ints.	25
	# of Sacks	23
	Turnover differential	-5

There are a lot of breakdowns that have been preventing production for the Patriots offensively the past couple of weeks, but the biggest problem is the timing of the passing game. Everyone knows that New England's offense is built to throw the ball to win and run the ball to maintain balance and to keep defenses honest. After a productive start to the season, defenses have now put the clamps on QB Drew Bledsoe.

Against offensive coordinator Ernie Zampese's offense, the key is to get to the quarterback before his receivers have time to come out of their breaks. In the first eight games, Bledsoe completed 60 percent of his passes for 13 touchdowns and four interceptions. In the last two games, divisional losses to the Jets and Dolphins, he completed 43 percent of his passes, throwing three touchdowns and eight interceptions.

It is no secret that the Bills are going to come after Bledsoe. Up front, the Bills have been getting much better penetration, and a lot of that can be attributed to the fact that Marcellus Wiley, Pat Williams and Sean Moran have been able to spell Phil Hansen and Bruce Smith, giving the veteran defensive ends fresh legs late in the game.

The Bills will often blitz two and three linebackers to get to Bledsoe. New England has not done a good enough job of working the ball underneath in the passing game, so it is allowing teams to vacate the area to bring more pressure. TE Ben Coates is having the most unproductive season as a pro, and the New England running backs have had little production as receivers as well.

Buffalo will play a soft, cover-two zone against New England to take away the deep third of the field. The corners, Thomas Smith and Ken Irvin, will allow WRs Terry Glenn, Shawn Jefferson and Troy Brown to get off the line of scrimmage and will force them to the inside, where there will be help from the safeties. Buffalo wants New England to continue to look downfield, forcing Bledsoe to sit in the pocket and giving the Bills more of an opportunity to get to the quarterback.

Expect the Patriots to throw more wrinkles in their offense this week. With the pressure now directly focused on the passing game, Zampese is going to be forced to shorten the attack and work more underneath. The Patriots have to be able to protect Bledsoe, but they need to do so without keeping Coates and some of the running backs in on pass protection.

This may be the root of their problems. The Patriots have been so concerned with protecting Bledsoe that they have taken away his safety valves and have forced the quarterback to throw down field almost exclusively.

One of the biggest problems last week for the Bills was that RBs Jonathan Linton and Antowain Smith were hobbled with injuries and gave Buffalo very little burst in the running game. Against the Patriots, offensive coordinator Joe Pendry will look to establish the ground game between the tackles.

New England has had tremendous problems against teams that can establish drives by running the football, because they are undersized up front and have little depth at the defensive tackle and middle linebacker position. Look for New England to pack it in more on defense, bringing SS Lawyer Milloy up close to the line of scrimmage on the weak side to take away the cut back lanes, creating more of a "44" look against the run.

Milloy would usually work head up the tight end, but with the loss of TE Jay Riemersma for the week to injury, New England is less worried about the production of the tight end in the passing game, and will be able to use OLB Chris Slade in coverage on Bobby Collins.

Look for the Patriots to use this eight-man front to get after Flutie in the passing game as well. Flutie was under constant pressure last week against the Jets' blitzing linebackers and secondary. The Bills passing game was completely out of sync due to the outside pressure that the Jets put on the quarterback. New England will run a lot of edge blitz packages that will feature Slade and Milloy working up field.

Buffalo is going to have to get their running backs and tight ends more involved in the passing game in order to neutralize the blitz. Without Riemersma at tight end, and with an ailing Linton in the backfield, Flutie's safety valves have been taken away.

With CBs Steve Israel and Ty Law working outside on WRs Eric Moulds and Peerless Price, the Patriots are going to look to use a lot of "cloud" coverage with FS Chris Carter to take away the deep third from Moulds.

The keys to the passing game are going to be Flutie's ability to handle the rush by dumping the ball off to his hot receivers and then take advantage of man-to-man coverage on Price.

Special teams

	NFL RANK
	Category	NE	BUF
	Punt return avg.	29	8
	Kickoff return avg.	7	22
	Opp. punt return avg.	21	12
	Opp. kickoff ret. avg.	7	22
	Time of possession	27	6

Adam Vinatieri has had only 18 attempts on the season, but he has nailed 15 of those. As the weather begins to turn and the season wears on, the punting average of Lee Johnson begins to slip. Once in the top five in punting this season, Johnson is averaging just 42.3 yards per punt. Kevin Faulk is coming on strong as the Patriots' kickoff return specialist. Faulk is now averaging 24.5 yards per kickoff return and seems to be improving his patience and vision each week.

Steve Christy has missed seven of his first 26 field goal attempts, including two last Sunday that would have brought the Bills within a touchdown. Kevin Williams has been a good spark for the Bills offense this season, averaging 10.9 yards per punt return.

Key matchups