New England Patriots vs. Buffalo Bills Matchup Preview (1/15/22): Betting Odds, Depth Charts, Live Stream (Watch Online)

New England Patriots vs. Buffalo Bills Matchup Preview (1/15/22)

Bill Belichik and his beloved New England Patriots have found themselves in their third AFC East matchup against the Bills this season following their loss last week at Miami. They are 1-1 against the Bills this year in a tale of two completely different game plans. In the first game, Mac Jones threw the ball just three times, and the Patriots topped the Bills with 222 yards on the ground. In their second matchup, the Bills defense forced Jones to throw the ball a lot more, which resulted in his worst performance of the season, and the Bills responded on offense, topping the Patriots 33-21. The Bills are now on a four-game winning streak that includes their win over New England while the Patriots have lost three of their last four games with questions circling about the rookie quarterback’s ability heading into the playoffs. The Bills are doing well but have problems of their own under center; Josh Allen has five interceptions and a 56.4% completion rate in his last five games. While both teams have problems, they are also two of few teams in the NFL who are pretty remarkable on both sides of the ball, which is what makes this matchup such a good one. 

New England Patriots vs. Buffalo Bills Betting Odds

Buffalo is a 3.5-point favorite in this game and the over/under is 43.5 points. These two teams have winning records on the road and at home, respectively. Buffalo is 6-3 at home this year and 4-3-2 ATS at home, contributing to their 9-6-2 record ATS overall. Meanwhile the Patriots are 6-2 on the road this year, and 5-3 ATS on the road, contributing to their 10-7 record ATS overall. These teams are 1-1 on the over/under this year, missing it by 16 points in the first matchup and exceeding it by 10.5 in the second. They are both 3-2 on hitting the over in their last five games but the Patriots are 3-5 on the over on the road and the Bills are 3-6 on the over at home. There are an ungodly amount of striking similarities between these two teams. The one thing that this game will certainly depend on is the weather. In their first matchup, the Bills hosted the Patriots in a blizzard and Buffalo struggled in the conditions. That wasn’t the case in game 2, and Buffalo dominated. The weather shouldn’t be as bad, but some snow is possible. Even if that’s the case, I think the Bills take this one. Granted, Bill Belichik is a very hard guy to beat in the playoffs, but it’s just unbelievably hard to trust Mac Jones right now. If the Bills pass rush shows up, which it has been all year, they will likely create too many problems for Jones to recover from (as we saw last time they played).

My predictions: Bills win 24-13, Bills cover, under 43.5

TV Schedule

Date: Saturday, January 15
Time: 8:15 PM ET
Location: Highmark Stadium – Orchard Park, NY
TV Coverage: CBS/PAR+

New England Patriots vs. Buffalo Bills Live Stream

Where can you watch Patriots vs. Bills online? You can stream this game, and many other NFL games live online with Hulu. Hulu has a 7 Day free trial and is cheaper than cable options at $5.99/month. Watch Patriots vs. Bills Free Online Now.

New England Patriots Analysis

Losing three of their last four regular-season games is certainly not what we pictured for this Patriots team after watching them go on a seven-game tear that took down the Titans and the Bills, consecutively. Unfortunately, Jones has led the charge on this – he has five interceptions in their last five games and an average 61.6% completion rate which includes a season-low 43.8% against the Bills. Likely the Bills will look to make Jones throw again, this game. 

The catalyst of this offense has been Damien Harris who has over 100 yards in each of his games against the Bills this year and has tallied 15 touchdowns, including three in their loss to Buffalo. Unfortunately for this offense, Harris is listed as questionable for the game and limited at practice this week following a hamstring injury, which bodes worse for Mac Jones and his pass offense. Hunter Henry is their scoring threat in the air, tying Travis Kelce for the most touchdowns by a tight end this year, with 9. This offense averages 27.2 points per game, which they fell short of in both of their games against the Bills defense.

Defensively, the biggest thing that this team has to worry about this week is the run game, which they have been struggling to contain in recent weeks. They allow 123.7 rushing yards per game which is not exactly ideal against a Josh Allen who has started running a lot more, and a hot Devin Singletary. They do, however, have J.C. Jackson in the backfield who has 8 interceptions this year, allow the second-fewest passing yards per game (behind the Bills) with just 187.1 and the second-fewest points against them per game with 17.8 (also behind the Bills). In their win against Buffalo, they held Allen to 145 yards in the air, but in their loss allowed 314 passing yards. This team is 0-5 when an opponent scores 25+ points.

New England Patriots Depth Chart

QB: Mac Jones
RB1: Damien Harris
RB2: Rhamondre Stevenson
RB3: Brandon Bolden
WR1: Jakobi Meyers
WR2: Kendrick Bourne
WR3: Nelson Agholor
TE1: Hunter Henry

Buffalo Bills Analysis

This team has the best pass defense and one of the best pass rushes in the league, allowing just 163 yards passing and 272.8 total yards. Their run defense, which allows just 109.8 yards, needs to do a better job at stopping big running plays, which they failed to do in their loss against them when they allowed 222 yards running. They are the league leader in points against them per game, holding teams to just 17. Jordan Poyer and Micah Hyde have five interceptions apiece, contributing to their 19 interceptions on the year, third in the league. Their recent loss of Tre’Davious White hurts their secondary but they are still the best defense in the league. 

Josh Allen hasn’t necessarily been at his best lately – he boasts a 56.4% completion rate and five interceptions over his last five games. But his rushing game has made up for it and is what has led them to four straight wins. Allen has at least 60 rushing yards in four of his last five games, including 109 yards on the ground against Tampa Bay. He has helped lead the rushing attack to 100+ rushing yards in each of their last five games alongside Devin Singletary. Singletary is a game-changer that has helped turn their run game into an imminent threat for defenses, which we saw last week against the Jets where he recorded two touchdowns in the last 8 minutes of the game. This running threat is obviously complemented by receiving abilities as well. Stefon Diggs, their leading receiver with over 1,200 yards and 10 touchdowns, had seven catches for 85 yards and a touchdown, last time they played the Patriots. This offense averages 28.4 points per game, the third-most in the league. 

Buffalo Bills Depth Chart

QB: Josh Allen
RB1: Devin Singletary
RB2: Zack Moss
WR1: Stefon Diggs
WR2: Emmanuel Sanders
WR3: Cole Beasley
TE1: Dawson Knox