The change of the tide in the AFC East could come to life this Sunday in Orchard Park with the Buffalo Bills set to host the New England Patriots at Bills Stadium.
The 2020 season has been a tale of two stories for both teams as the Bills are the next up-and-coming team currently at 5-2, while the Patriots are falling back to Earth at 2-4 after 20 years of glory atop the division.
The Bills have struggled a bit since their hot 4-0 start to the season, dropping two games against top NFL teams in the Tennessee Titans and Kansas City Chiefs, while earning a less-than appealing 18-10 win over the New York Jets last week.
As for the Patriots, they got out to a decent 2-1 start in the first three weeks, but have since dropped three straight games and have seen things fall apart in all areas of their game. The offense has been relatively ineffective, the defense is giving up an average of 360.3 yards per-game, and they were recently run off the field in a 33-6 blowout loss to the San Francisco 49ers at Gillette Stadium.
The last time the Patriots had a three-game losing streak dates back to the 2002 season, where New England lost four straight games in Bill Belichick's third season as head coach. That team ended up going 9-7 and just missed out on the playoffs.
With a win, the Bills would improve to 6-2 on the 2020 campaign, which would match the team's start to the 2019 season where they finished 10-6. It would also put Buffalo in a good spot ahead of matchups with the Seattle Seahawks at home and the Arizona Cardinals on the road before the bye week.
More importantly, a win would give the Bills a three-and-a-half-game lead on the Patriots in the AFC East standings through the halfway point of the season. The Miami Dolphins currently sit in-between both teams in the division with a 3-3 record.
Patriots writer Ben Volin from the Boston Globe joined the Howard and Jeremy Show on Wednesday to provide some insight on New England's 2020 season and what the future holds for the six-time Super Bowl champions now that the Tom Brady era is officially over.
Here is some of what he had to say:
Volin on the feelings surrounding this 2020 Patriots team:
"I don't know if 'panic' is the right word because that would assume that there's high expectations. I just think there's 'reservation' that I think a lot of the players realize that they're a part of a rebuilding year, like Julian Edelman slamming him helmet on the ground last week in the loss to San Francisco [49ers]. I think a lot of the fans are seeing that this was not a team that was really built to win this year. So I don't know if Bill Belichick is panicking because I think he probably expected this."
Volin on what life is like for Patriots fans in New England:
"This is what life is like for the other 31 teams. Quarterbacks don't just fall in your lap, it can be a struggle to find them, and you just don't just automatically win 12 games in your division every year. It's been a while since these fans have been trajected to normalcy, and there's a whole generation of fans that don't even know what it's like or what NFL reality is. I used to cover the Miami Dolphins where they would cycle through a quarterback every two years and always go 7-9. Now, this is where the Patriots are."
Volin on the Patriots' quarterback situation:
"They went from having the best situation in the league with Brady, [Jimmy] Garoppolo and [Jacoby] Brissett to having the worst depth chart. The traded away Garoppolo, they let Brady walk, and they really didn't plan for any departure. Now they're in total purgatory. Maybe they can find the guy next year, maybe they make the right draft pick, but just because you take a guy in the first round doesn't mean he's going to be the answer."
Volin on Cam Newton's struggles in the past few weeks:
"Him getting COVID-19 earlier this month really just derailed the entire team. For two weeks, they weren't able to practice, they weren't sure day-to-day what their schedule was going to be or [have their games] moved around. Since Cam came back from COVID-19, he's been a shell of himself. The first three games of the season, he was running the ball really well, he was seeing the field as a passer, they were efficient on offense. That has just completely gone down the tube here in the last two weeks and really bad losses to the [Denver] Broncos and 49ers at home.
"Cam is just not seeing the field. He's not processing things quickly enough, he's staring down receivers. There's this crazy stat from NFL Next Gen [Stats] that shows his spray chart - he hasn't thrown the ball to the right side in the last two weeks. I think he has three total pass attempts to the right side, and they were all against Denver. He didn't throw the ball once to the right side against the 49ers. [Offensive coordinator] Josh McDaniels said that was more coincidence than anything... Guys are open, and he's just not throwing with the right anticipation. He's just been in a little bit of a fog."
Volin on the Patriots' plans for the NFL Trade Deadline:
"I think they should be sellers this week even if they win. Let's be honest, they're not going anywhere this year. This is not a Super Bowl caliber team. Maybe they get the sixth or the seventh playoff seed. Heck, maybe even they'll win the AFC East at like 9-7, but they're not going anywhere right now. They're not close to being one of the elite teams right now. I think the Chiefs, [Baltimore] Ravens, and the Titans would run them off the field. This is a rebuilding time for the Patriots. They need to collect draft picks."
You can listen to the entire interview below: