NFL BETTING — BILLS OUT TO TAKE THE TORCH IN AFC EAST.

NFL Betting — Bills Out to Take the Torch in AFC East…… and More

By Charles

Jay New England Patriots at Buffalo Bills – NFL Spread Pick & Prediction

BetAnySports NFL Betting Odds: Bills -4, Total 41

The New England Patriots have problems; there is no question about that. Heck, they are even looking up at the Miami Dolphins in the AFC East.

So it’s with a lot of doubt that they go into Sunday’s matchup (1 PM ET) with the Buffalo Bills, a team that is looking to swipe away supremacy in the division.

New England is playing for the first time in many years without Tom Brady. And so at the start of the season you knew there were going to be some questions that had to be answered about this offense. Bill Belichick could have just handed the quarterback job over to Jarrett Stidham, the second-year man out of Auburn and Baylor, but he wanted a more experienced hand at the position. So he signed Cam Newton, who of course is the former league MVP.

Newton has been spectacular at times, but he has also been somewhat erratic in his career. In recent years there has emerged a “Good Cam and a “Bad Cam.” The Bad Cam is the one who suffers from injuries, makes a lot of errant throws and doesn’t show a lot of consistency with regard to leadership.

There is a certain “culture” Belichick has developed in the New England camp, and there were legitimate questions as to whether Newton clashed with that culture. He was rather demonstrative, and has at various times in his career acted like a “me” player.

Yeah, we’re piling on a bit. But only after Newton missed time because of a failure to follow COVID-19 protocols, and has now thrown five interceptions without a touchdown pass over the last two games.

The Pats have scored 28 points in the last three games, and there have been embarrassing results – a loss to a Denver Broncos team that beat them without even scoring a touchdown, and then a 33-6 beatdown at the hands of the San Francisco 49ers, who completely broke their spirit right from the outset. If things continue to get this depressing, it wouldn’t – and shouldn’t – surprise BetAnySports patrons if Belichick turned to Stidham or even Brian Hoyer going forward.

Things don’t look promising right now. The Patriots have been without their best running back, Sony Michel, who has been dealing a quad injury AND virus issues. Their most reliable receiver, Julian Edelman, has had knee surgery and he is out.

Newton is the team’s leading rusher, and we wonder if that’s an altogether healthy thing, considering that they may want to concentrate on keeping the ball on the ground in this matchup.

And so now comes the Bills, who seem to have underachieved over their last three games as well. The 42-16 defeat suffered at Tennessee came against an opponent that hadn’t even practiced. A loss to Kansas City was rather uninspired. And then what should have been a walkover against the Jets wound up carrying some stress with it (18-10). They certainly didn’t get a pointspread win out of that.

Josh Allen hasn’t been able to maintain the glittering numbers he had in the earlier part of the schedule. Still, he’s thrown only four interceptions, and he’s been able to connect 48 times with Stefon Diggs, Buffalo’s big off-season acquisition.

With Allen gaining some maturity, Buffalo has gotten a little more away from principal reliance on the ground game. And it had to be kind of alarming for the Pats to let the Niners bully them at the line of scrimmage to the tune of 197 yards.

There’s no doubt it’s a new era without Brady, but the Bills will be bucking a lot of history nonetheless. New England has beaten Buffalo in 35 of the last 39 meetings, and they have won eight times in a row at the stadium in Orchard Park.

Buffalo is second in the NFL in yards gained per drive, but they are surprisingly middle-of-the-pack when it comes to stopping the opposition from running the football, not to mention red zone touchdown percentage. The Pats have been lousy inside the 20 as well.

The Bills couldn’t cross the goal line against the Jets, having to settle for six field goals instead. It wouldn’t surprise us if this game went UNDER the total. And even through, by rights, we should expect a full-throated defensive effort out of the Pats, it wouldn’t shock us if they laid an egg on the offensive side either. Things may be too far gone by now.