#1 01.08.19 15:40
Wearing a red non-contact jersey on the team’s
ORCHARD PARK Renell Wren Jersey , N.Y. (AP) — grass practice field, Buffalo Bills running back LeSean McCoy worked on a limited basis Thursday as he makes his way back from a concussion.With or without their top playmaker, the Bills and their sputtering offense will be challenged to keep up with Tom Brady and the New England Patriots on Monday night.The primetime matchup — Buffalo’s first home game on Monday night in a decade — features one of the best offenses in the league against one of the worst.“I think it’s an opportunity to come on a big stage against a great football team to get the ball rolling and do something special,” Bills receiver Zay Jones said. “Especially at home.”Scoring and producing on offense has been difficult for the Bills this year.Buffalo’s 81 points through seven games is the third-lowest total over that span in franchise history and the lowest since 1977, when the Bills had 75 points and started 1-7.In comparison, the Patriots have scored 86 points in the second quarter this season.The Bills are 31st in total offense, 32nd in points per game and 32nd in passing. Buffalo’s average of 129.4 yards passing per game is 47.2 yards behind last year’s Bills team, which ended the year 31st in passing.Buffalo averages 11.6 points per game, while the Patriots average 30.6 points per game.The biggest issue for Buffalo has been at quarterback, where veteran Derek Anderson is set to make his second straight start after signing with the team to provide a leadership role earlier this month.That came after a disastrous start to the season by opening day starter Nathan Peterman and disappointing play from rookie Josh Allen, the seventh overall pick in the draft.Allen is out with an elbow injury.Buffalo’s passing game showed some signs of life in the first half of Sunday’s 37-5 loss to Indianapolis with Anderson before struggling. Anderson had three interceptions and lost one fumble while throwing for 175 yards.It’s a tough spot for Anderson, who signed with Buffalo on Oct. 9.“I’m just continuing to grab information as we go http://www.bengalsauthorizedshops.com/a … dan-jersey ,” Anderson said. “(Offensive coordinator Brian Daboll) keeps asking me every day, ‘You good?’ Yup, I’m good. Everything we’re doing, I’m staying up to speed with and trying to grab anything extra that I can as we go and kind of get it on the fly.”Anderson, 35, recognizes the difficulty in trying to keep up with the high-powered Patriots.“They’re a good football team, there’s no question about that,” Anderson said. “Unfortunately I have to just play their defense. That’s my focus this week.”There were some small positives for the Bills in their loss to the Colts. The offense topped 300 yards for the first time this season with 303 yards.Anderson’s 175 yards passing against Indianapolis were the team’s most since Josh Allen’s 196 yards against Minnesota.The Bills also received a spark from backup running backs Chris Ivory and Marcus Murphy. Ivory had 81 yards on 16 attempts (5.1 average) against Indianapolis while Murphy had 53 yards on four attempts, including a 30-yard gain.“Obviously we know who we’re playing,” Jones said. “The Patriots have a good defense so we can’t overlook them either. So just stay on track with things that we have planned.” COSTA MESA, Calif. (AP) — Gus Bradley was successful in coming up with a game plan to thwart an athletic rookie quarterback making his first postseason start.The Chargers defensive coordinator’s challenge this week though could not be more diametrically different.A day after Los Angeles advanced with a 23-17 victory over Baltimore in an AFC wild-card game, Bradley and the rest of the Chargers were beginning to prepare to face the most experienced postseason quarterback in NFL history in Tom Brady Greedy Williams Jersey , who will make his 38th playoff start for New England on Sunday.“It’s night and day, there’s no doubt about it but we’ve faced more Brady types than Lamar (Jackson) types,” Chargers coach Anthony Lynn said. “It is still about us playing fast and making plays.”Bradley’s game plan to contain Jackson remained a big topic of conversation on Monday. The Chargers went with seven defensive backs on all but one of Baltimore’s 59 defensive plays as they held Jackson to 54 rushing yards. Jackson was 14 of 29 for 194 yards and two touchdowns, but he had completed only three passes for 26 yards the first three quarters.According to Sportradar, the 58 snaps are the most any team has gone with quarter personnel (seven defensive backs) in any game since the NFL’s Next Gen Stats came online in 2014. The previous high was 31 by Buffalo in a 2016 Week 3 game against Arizona.Los Angeles had previously used seven defensive backs on 15 or more snaps twice this season. They employed it 18 times in a Week 7 win at Cleveland and on 15 plays in the regular-season finale at Denver.“It was a matter of putting our seven best, healthy athletes out there. The coaches did a great job getting us prepared this week,” defensive end Isaac Rochell said.Lynn said he was surprised by Bradley’s idea to use it the entire game and that it led to lots of discussion with the coaching staff leading up to the game, but in the end it was the best move to make.“We may not always agree, we will disagree sometimes, but that was a tough one that worked,” Lynn said.Lynn said a lot of the credit also goes to the defensive line, which was able to get consistent pressure on Jackson. The Chargers got seven sacks http://www.brownsauthorizedshops.com/au … aki-jersey , but only rushed five or more on three plays.With the Chargers down to one healthy starting linebacker after Jatavis Brown was placed on injured reserve on Monday, it could be another week where the same strategy could again be used. They used two linebackers on only one play and had one linebacker on 15 snaps. The Chargers base alignment against the Ravens was four defensive linemen and seven defensive backs.Los Angeles was able to make it work because safeties Derwin James, Jahleel Addae and Adrian Phillips are comfortable playing in the box. There were even some snaps where James lined up as a rush end.“We lost two starting ‘Will’ linebackers (including Denzel Perryman earlier in the year) and so we thought that was the best move to make for this week. We were prepared to go the other direction if it didn’t work, but it worked just fine,” Lynn said.The Chargers have lost seven straight to New England, including 21-13 in Week 8 last season. Brady was 32 of 47 for 333 yards but the Patriots had just one touchdown. Bradley’s strategy in that game was to use six defensive backs on 53 of 82 plays.“Sometimes though, New England is a specific game-planning team. They may play you differently than they did another team or they will play you differently than they played you last year,” Lynn said.“I played in that division for eight years and I never saw the same plan. So, that’s just something you have to wait and see and make those adjustments.”Brady has won seven straight against the Chargers after losing the first two and Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers has never defeated Brady in seven meetings. They defeated New England in 2008, but that was when Brady was sidelined with a season-ending knee injury.
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