Tuesday 2 October 2012 11:34, UK
The New England Patriots head to Buffalo to take on the Bills in Sunday's first live NFL game, with Tom Brady and his men facing a first 1-3 start in a decade.
For the Bills QB Ryan Fitzpatrick, the probable loss of CJ Spiller and the loss of Fred Jackson would be big, as they are good dump-off guys you can give the ball too to get out of trouble. I don't know if I have that much faith in Fitzpatrick, he's averaging under 200 yards a game passing, that's another thing that just jumps out at me and I'm not sure I'm sold on him being the one to carry the Bills in this ball game. Eight touchdown passes is tied most in the NFL, but still the questions are on him, and he doesn't have Spiller for those swing passes to go do something with. Tashard Choice is an OK back but he doesn't give you that variety that Spiller can. Spiller has really come on, it's just a case of finding your niche, it took a while for the comfort level to set in on both sides with the coaching staff and with him, but he's now shown he has some ability there and he can make it happen - he's fantastic if you can get him out there in the open field. But Choice has to be the feature back on Sunday, they have to bring Jackson back slowly if they bring him back this week, and Jackson needs to say that he's going to play even if it's just so the Patriots have to practice for two running backs instead of just the one. It would be fantastic if the Bills can get a win over the Patriots in a wide open AFC East - if you look at the Jets losing Derrelle Revis that's a big blow to them, we saw when he didn't play how much they gave up passing wise when Revis wasn't in there on one side of the field. Also, if the Bills beat the Patriots all of a sudden they are 1-3 and that's a very different look to things than they are used to seeing in New England. Kev's Call... It's kind of hard for me to go against the Bills but I just find it hard to select them over the Patriots right now. Their back is up against the wall and they are one of those teams that when their backs are up against the wall they respond a lot better than most clubs do so I'm going to have to go with the Patriots.
