NFL 2022 Week 13 Thursday Night Football Preview: Buffalo at New England

  

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Buffalo Bills (8-3) at New England Patriots (6-5)

Remember how these were the top playoff teams in the AFC East last season? Remember how it seemed like a wild race, one that the Patriots had effectively won, two games up and a victory at Buffalo in their pockets, with just a few weeks remaining? And then, the Pats got col, and Buffalo got hot, and stormed back to take the division, returning the favor and beating the Patriots up in Foxboro? Then, the Bills completely dominated the playoff meeting between the two teams.

Well, this is the first rematch between these two teams since then. And this has been another wild AFC East race, although involves all four teams this year, instead of just these two particular teams. Both of these franchises have seen an up and down kind of season here so far. New England has kind of been all over the place, just up and down, while the Bills raced off to a 6-1 start before dropping two straight against the Jets and Minnesota. Then, they returned back to form and have now won their last two games, including a big win in Detroit on Thanksgiving.

Bill Belichick will try to do some things. He is very shrewd and habitually prepared. My suspicion is that this is a large part of why New England currently sports an overall winning record, or why they were as successful as they were last season. So they should prove to be tough, as they were at Minnesota.

All of that said, the Bills feel like the better overall team. They know that they went through some bumps on the road, and they also know that despite an impressive record against teams outside of the AFC East (8-1), they are nevertheless 0-2 within their own AFC East division to this point. And that needs to change, if they are going to win the division title and secure an elite position come playoff time. True, they have not looked as incredible as they did earlier in the season. But this is still one of the elite teams in the AFC, and indeed the league. Tonight, I believe they will remind us all of why that is.

My pick: Buffalo