Bedard's Daily Briefing 09.25.19: Sneaky big week behind scenes, on field for Patriots

Good morning!

A few random thoughts while I wonder what Josh Allen is thinking right now...

• We all know how good the Patriots are. They lead the league, by far, in point differential (plus-89) and even advanced analytics have them as the runaway best team in the league, even if they've played the easiest schedule to this point (25th the rest of the way).


• But they're not flawless (well, on defense they are). And the offense is scuffling a bit right now. We broke down some of those issues, and discussed how they can be fixed internally given a little time and more data.


• The Julian Edelman injury will be huge. He's tough as nails, so I expect him to play on Sunday, but how long will he be at full strength? Not to mention what Josh Gordon might have to fight through again.


• The trickle-down effect at receiver would be, interesting. Jakobi Meyers had more iffy plays than good ones against the Jets and doesn't look like he has Brady's trust. Gunnah was worse.


• Of course, the running game is a bit of a mess right now and the Patriots now have to figure out how they're going to run plays without James Develin on the field. With Jakob Johnson in, the Patriots could be looking at significant playing time for four new players this season on Sunday: LT Marshall Newhouse, Johnson, Meyers and TE Ryan Izzo.


• So a bunch of stuff to sort out, which the Patriots obviously can. That's why Josh McDaniels and Tom Brady get paid the big bucks.


• But contributing to this is that the Bills have a good defense. So far they are sixth overall on D over at FootballOutsiders.com and they have the fourth-best pass defense (they're 21st in rush but since the Patriots can't run the ball...).


• And Brady has thrown more interceptions (four) than touchdowns (three) against Sean McDermott's troops in recent years.


• So, yeah, an interesting week (for once) starting up in Foxborough. Hope the defense is working on deadlifts considering how much they might have to carry again on Sunday.

____________________

Tied it in the 9th.
Won it in the 19th.

Thank you, @ildemaro_tigre. #RattleOn pic.twitter.com/Kqa1NksDZl

— Arizona Diamondbacks (@Dbacks) September 25, 2019