New England Patriots

Bills Shutout Patriots Three Takeaways

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

share

facebookxredditlink

foxsports

Bills shutout Patriots. Here are three takeaways from the game.

Last Sunday, the Buffalo Bills did the unthinkable and shutout the New England Patriots in Foxboro 16 – 0. It was the first time the Patriots were shutout at Gillette Stadium. The last time the Patriots were shutout at home was all the way back on November 28, 1993 when they lost 6 – 0 to the New York Jets.

The Bills played as a unit and for a change, it was the Patriots squad making stupid penalties on offense and defense which extended drives for the Bills and pushed the Patriots back on critical third downs.

It was a thing of beauty and something I’ll never forget. Just like I’ll never forget this beautiful GIF that was given to us and will be with us for eternity as a result of the game.

Ok. Sorry. Enough peacocking around. I just haven’t been this happy after a game on a Sunday in a while. There were some real changes the Bills made to their offensive scheme, they have had some bargain free agent signings who have contributed immensely on the defensive side of the ball and some chemistry is developing on the offensive side of the ball.

Let’s start with the offensive tweaks on the next slide.

Tweaks of Offense are working well

The Bills made a minor tweak on offense and it led to a very positive result especially in the absence of Sammy Watkins who could be out anywhere from eight weeks to the rest of the season.

New offensive coordinator, Anthony Lynn, made a concerted effort to call more plays where the Bills rolled the pocket thus creating lanes for Tyrod Taylor to see up the middle and to make throwing lanes to the outside as well.

More from BuffaLowDown

It’s something Greg Roman failed to do this year and it hurt Tyrod Taylor’s production. Lynn has also done a good job of calling more short passes with screens and slants to help move the chains and keep the passing attack rolling along with the running game.

By moving the pocket Taylor was finally able to find some chemistry with Robert Woods and Charles Clay. Woods had the third most receiving yards of his career with 89 on seven catches.

Charles Clay had just seven receptions on the year coming into the game. Against the Patriots he had five receptions for 47 yards which is his highest total for the year. He still needs to improve upon that but it was a good start and the Bills are finally getting him more involved in the offense.

Taylor not only connected with his top two targets but he connected with eight different players on the day. He didn’t have a crazy statistical day with 246 yards on 27 completions and one touchdown but it was his best overall game as a passer from start to finish (against the Jets two big plays were most of his stats) and it’s something to build upon for future weeks.

What else can we take away from this game?

Give Doug Whaley some credit for these offseason signings

Doug Whaley deserves some serious credit. Say what you will about the injury issues with his draft picks but he hit a grand slam home run in free agency with almost no money to spend outside of signing his own players.

Whaley was able to sign Leger Douzable, Zach Brown and Lorenzo Alexander. All of these players have been impact players on defense and played beyond anyone’s wildest imaginations.

Out of all the players, Zach Brown makes the most at $1.25 million dollars on a one-year contract. Leger Douzable and Lorenzo Alexander are both on one-year $885,000 deals.

Brown was intentionally signed for more money than most of the other Bills free agents this offseason because he was slotted to start at first. Buffalo was not expecting Reggie Ragland to be hanging around in the second round for them and their plan was for Brown to be their starter all along.

When it was announced that Ragland would miss the season, Brown became the starter and is now leading the NFL in tackles with 52, followed by Luke Kuechly with 46. Brown is one of the fastest linebackers in the league which is surprising with his 248-pound frame. NFL.com had this to say about him when he was a prospect in the draft “Brown might be one of the fastest straight-line linebackers to ever enter the NFL draft.”

He proved that when he chased down the 5’10”, 200 pound Julian Edelman on the first play of the game and tackled him at the one-yard line after a play that went for over 90 yards but was called back due to holding on Chris Hogan.

Preston Brown has played much better than last year and Bills fans should be very excited about the prospects of the “Brown Brothers” going forward.

Want your voice heard? Join the BuffaLowDown team!

When Lorenzo Alexander was signed in the offseason most thought it was going to be for special teams duties. Due to a rash of injuries to Shaq Lawson, Manny Lawson, and IK Enemkpali it opened up an opportunity for Alexander to step into a starting role and he has been very impressive.

He has been involved in a sack in each game this season with half a sack week one, a sack week two, one and half week three and one in week four. His four total sacks is tied with Kyle Williams for tops on the team.

Leger Douzable was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Vikings in 2008. Since then he has spent time for Giants, Rams, Lions, Jaguars, Jets and now the Bills. He’s been a journeyman but it seems like has finally found a role with the Bills.

He has played 126 snaps over four games which is 47 percent of the Bills total 265 defensive plays according to SportingCharts.com. He’s been a solid contributor and while Rex may have had a say in his signing since he was former Jets player, general manager Doug Whaley deserves some serious credit for the players the Bills signed on the cheap in the offseason who are making huge contributions to the team.

Let’s get to the last takeaway on the next slide.

The Ryan defense is back and it looks great

Rex Ryan’s defense appears to be back. The Bills have had three strong defensive performances through four weeks this year. Their one down week against the Jets seems to clearly be an anomaly where Ryan Fitzpatrick played out of his mind. In that game the Jets receivers came up with all the 50-50 plays and the Bills defense was unable to get off the field.

Fitzpatrick proved that game was a fluke with nine interceptions over the past two weeks. The Bills have further proved that fluke with two strong defensive performances against the Arizona Cardinals and the New England Patriots two teams who were projected to be Super Bowl contenders before the season started. Sure the Cardinals are 1-3 and the Patriots were without Tom Brady but both are good teams and the Patriots were 3-0 coming into the game.

The Bills are third in the league in sacks with 13 which is just eight shy of their total from last season. It puts them on pace for 52 sacks on the year which would be just two shy of their total of 54 in 2014 when they led the league in sacks.

Buffalo’s defense has given up the 6th fewest points per game in the league with 17.0. The five teams ahead of them are some of the best in the league. The teams are Philadelphia (3-0), Minnesota (4-0), Seattle (3-1), New England (3-1) and Denver (4-0). Not bad company to be in.

When you watch the defense it’s much different than last year. The players have bought in and the unit is getting much better pressure on the quarterback. Just ask Jacoby Brissett who has hit hard numerous times last week, and I’m not talking about the pregame when this happened.

The  defense has stopped two potent offensive units over the past two weeks with Dennis Thurman calling the plays. Sure the Patriots were without Brady but they scored at least 23 points in their three prior games.

Thurman calling the defensive plays, Rex Ryan is free to take a more holistic view of the team and has allowed him to spend more time focusing on the offense in addition to the defense. It’s been working well for the past two games.

The Buffalo Bills have quieted the panic of the media and fans after an 0-2 start. They now travel out west this week for a huge matchup with the Los Angeles Rams. That matchup is followed by two winnable games against the 49ers and the Dolphins. If the team can keep up this momentum there is a real chance they could be 5-2 before their schedule gets harder.

The 2-2 Bills have proven one thing thus far, “Nobody Circles the Wagons like the Buffalo Bills.”

This article originally appeared on

share

Get more from New England Patriots Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more

in this topic

New England Patriots

National Football League