Patriots Vs. Bills Week 11 First Half Thoughts

As the New England Patriots enter halftime of their Week 11 game against the Buffalo Bill with a 10-3 lead, here are some thoughts on the first half of action:

Early Pressure On Brady- After coming off of a bye week, it's clear that the defensive minded head coach of the Bills, Rex Ryan, put an extra emphasis on his team getting to New England quarterback Tom Brady. The Buffalo defense has spent a lot of the early going in Brady's face and the star quarterback has taken some big hits. The New England offensive line, which got some players back this week, will need to step up and give Brady more time to get things going in the second half.

Where's The Weapons- The Buffalo defense has done a tremendous job of disguising pressure and have really neutralized the Patriots' offensive play makers so far. The new cast of characters for New England are not getting a lot of opportunities to make plays because of the Buffalo defense and are not getting open when Brady actually gets time to pass. The Buffalo secondary has played great coverage through the first two quarters.

Bring Taylor Down- On a few occasions, in the first half, the Pats' defensive line was able to get to Buffalo quarterback Tyrod Taylor. Once they got to the mobile passer, they missed opportunities to bring him down and allowed him to scramble out and make plays. They must bring him down in the second half, especially on third down attempts to get the Bills' offense off the field.

Solid D Nonetheless- Regardless of the few times the would be tacklers have failed to wrestle Taylor down in the backfield and a couple of blown coverages by the secondary, the Patriot defense has been great against the Buffalo offense. New England has limited the effectiveness of LeSean McCoy and have completely taken top wide receiver target Sammy Watkins out of the game. A continued effort of strong defense will be needed in the second half.

Huge Swing At End- The Final 51 seconds provided the most thrilling action of the game, thus far, and a huge swing of momentum for New England. After another solid defensive stop for Buffalo, the Bills offense was able to move the ball and get into field goal range. With a chance to go up by three in New England at the half, Buffalo kicker Dan Carpenter hit the right post, blowing a huge opportunity for his team. In classic Brady fashion, the New England quarterback took the ball, with 46 seconds on the clock and three timeouts at his disposal, and led his team on their most lucrative drive yet. A tremendous catch and run for 11 yards by Danny Amendola and a great diving, sprawling snag by Brandon LaFell set the Pats up at around the 20 yard line with just under 30 seconds and a time out to work with. Two plays later, Brady stood in the pocket, looked Buffalo's blitzers in the face and hit running back James White in the flat, who broke a tackle and scampered into the end zone for an easy 20-yard touchdown, on third and 10.

Chance To Blow It Open- Now, New England, who won the toss and deferred to the second half, will have a chance to expand on a seven point lead. That's the type of situation the Pats normally chose to defer for. Having a chance to go up by two scores before the opposition touches the ball in the second half is a huge part of New England's game plan each week.