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Every Wednesday during the NFL season, Kru’s Control will offer readers a pre-port. A pre-port is a first cousin to a pre-diction, but it’s not just a guess about the score of Sunday’s Patriots game, it is a full-length report about the game—before it ever happens—as if it had already happened. Think of having a time traveler come back each week to let you know the story of the game several days before the game is ever played.
It was a case of déjà vu all over again.
On September 29 the New England Patriots and the Buffalo Bills met in the fourth game of the 2019 season. The score was Patriots 16 Bills 10. On December 21, the fifteenth game of the same season, the two teams met again. Score: Patriots 16 Bills 10. Who would have thunk it?
The scores were identical, and the person who most affected the outcome, Bills quarterback Josh Allen, once again played a leading role in determining which team left the game with smiles on their faces.
Reminiscent of their Sept game back in Orchard Park, the Patriots defense did a number on the Bills second year quarterback. In this game as the last, Allen demonstrated amply that various parts of his anatomy work better than others. His arm, always known as a rifle, was strong. He hit two long balls, of 28 and 33 yards, against the usually reliable Patriots secondary. His legs, also a trademark of the former Wyoming Cowboys signal caller, were also pretty nifty as he amassed a total of 78 yards on assorted sweeps and scrambles.
Ah, but the head. Just as Carl Yastrzemski was once described as an all-star from the neck down, the same could be said of the guy behind the Buffalo center. In the first Pats-Bills game, Bill Belichick brought pressure from everywhere and he did so once again. Somehow Allen never figured out where or when it was coming then, nor did he have the slightest idea of how to handle it this time around.
Completely unlike Tom Brady (decent arm, terrible legs, brilliant mind), the Bills QB demonstrated once again that he still hasn’t learned the concept of throwing the ball away. While TB 12 has shown a recent tendency to heave it to parts unknown at the slightest sign of pressure, Josh Allen has not demonstrated an ability to master this concept. Just as he did in the first game, Allen heaved one duck after another whenever the Pats pressured, resulting in three interceptions (same number as the last Pats game), serving up this New England win on a silver platter.
No matter that Tom Brady was 12 for 26 with one TD and one INT. No matter that the Pats benefited from a wonderfully bad interference call at the Bills one for the winning touchdown (in my humble opinion, Julian Edelman never would have caught that ball, contact with the DB or not). No matter that Sony Michel was on the field for only 12% of the Pats offensive plays and ran for a measly 16 yards. No matter that Deatrich Wise was lost to an MCL tear in the second quarter.
With the Bills driving in the final minute and on the Pats 25, were we surprised to see an all-out blitz on third and six? Were we surprised to see Josh Allen elude Danny Shelton and Chase Winovich? And were we surprised to see Allen heave it up for grabs as Kyle Van Noy bore down on him? No, it was no surprise—any more than we were surprised to see Duron Harmon pick it off to seal the Patriots win.
I love that guy, Josh Allen. He has that special ability to grab defeat from the jaws of victory.
