After losing back-to-back road games the New England Patriots (9-5) hope to finish the regular season strong at Gillette Stadium, starting with Sunday's AFC East matchup with the Buffalo Bills (5-9) as consensus 13-point home favorites on the NFL odds at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com.
The Patriots were favored while visiting the Miami Dolphins and Pittsburgh Steelers the past two weeks and dropped both games by a combined eight points.
The Josh Gordon suspension has not affected the betting line. In fact, New England actually went from a 13-point favorite to a 13.5-point favorite at some sportsbooks on Thursday. You can see line moves here.
The good news for New England is that the team is the only one in the NFL that has yet to lose a home game this season. The Patriots are a perfect 6-0 straight up at Gillette while going 5-1 against the spread, according to the OddsShark NFL Database, and they will play their last two games there versus divisional opponents looking to earn one of the top two seeds in the AFC.
The Kansas City Chiefs (11-3) and Houston Texans (10-4) are currently ahead of them in the conference standings, but the Patriots hold tiebreaker edges over each of them.
Meanwhile, the Bills are nowhere near the same team that went 9-7 a year ago and made the playoffs for the first time since 1999. Part of the problem has been the quarterback position, with rookie Josh Allen only healthy enough to play in 10 of the first 15 games. Allen missed Buffalo's first meeting with New England in Week 8, as veteran Derek Anderson got the start and threw a costly interception that was returned for a touchdown to help beat the spread.
New England Patriots
The Patriots had led 18-6 before that pick and won 25-6 to cover as 13.5-point road favorites at betting sites.
Allen has looked good at times on the field since his return with the Bills splitting their last four games, especially on the ground. He has averaged nearly 88 rushing yards per game during that stretch, scoring three times as well to go along with his four passing touchdowns.
Allen might be exactly what is needed to help Buffalo end a four-game cover streak for New England, although it will be much tougher for him to pull off an upset victory in Foxborough. That is because the Patriots have won 15 of the previous 17 meetings in the series there.
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