By throwing the ball only three times and running it 46 times against the Bills on Monday night, the Patriots have acquired one very specific advantage for the December 26 rematch between the two teams.
Appearing on The Greg Hill Show on WEEI, coach Bill Belichick acknowledged that the Bills will have directly witnessed far less of the team’s passing game.
“We were talking about that last night,” Belichick said with a laugh, via Mike Reiss of ESPN.com. “We can use our whole passing game. All the pass plays we have, they haven’t seen.”
Of course, the Patriots have put plenty of passing plays on film. But when the fifth of eight quarters between the two teams commence in 19 days, the Patriots will be doing things they didn’t do against the Bills the first time around.
Unless it’s really windy at Gillette Stadium and the Patriots run it as much or more in Week 16.
