The New England Patriots and Buffalo Bills will be facing off for the third time this season on Super Wild Card Weekend. The teams split their first two meets, as each won their road divisional matchup during the regular season.
The third installment this season will be taking place at New Era Stadium, home of the Bills. It is the first full home playoff game that the Bills will have since 1996. They hosted a playoff game last year, but it was a little different with COVID-19 restrictions in place limiting capacity to 6,700.
Bills Mafia filling out a stadium with 70,000 fans is going to be a totally different monster to handle. This is also the first time that the AFC East rivals will be facing off in the playoff in the Super Bowl era, as they last played against each other in the postseason 58 years ago.
The teams are coming into this matchup heading in two different directions. The divisional champion Bills are hitting their stride at a perfect time, winning four consecutive games, including one of the Patriots. New England is limping into the postseason, losing three of their last four games.
The Patriots had a division title in their grasp but relinquished it with some poor performances down the stretch. Now, as a result, they will have to go onto the road into a familiar hostile environment they know will be difficult to pull a victory off in.
If New England is going to pull off the upset victory, they will need a stellar performance from their defense. Their performance has slipped on that side of the ball, which is what makes Matt Judon the team’s X-Factor this weekend.
Judon was one of the players that New England splurged on in free agency. Spending big in free agency isn’t normally their plan of action, but in this case, it worked out excellently. Judon led the team with 12.5 sacks, becoming the first player to register a double-digit total since Chandler Jones in 2015.
But, he has been quiet to end the season. He hasn’t registered a sack since December 6th, as a bout with COVID-19 also knocked him out of the lineup for a week. Without his production, the Patriots have seen their sack numbers plummet.
In the last four games, New England has only four sacks and nine quarterback hits. Those numbers rank 29th and 31st over that span. Getting Judon back on track is imperative if the Patriots want to have a chance at advancing past the Bills.
If they cannot get pressure on Josh Allen, the explosive Buffalo offense will pick the Patriots apart just as they did in the Week 16 matchup.
