Even though they have one of the most talented throwers the NFL has ever seen under center, the Buffalo Bills are one of the run-heaviest teams in all of football this season. Entering their Week 15 showdown with the New England Patriots, the team of head coach Sean McDermott is ranked second in the league in rushing attempts.
Volume is not the only strength the Bills’ ground game brings to the table. The group is also quite efficient, ranking first in the NFL in yards per attempt (5.1) while totaling
a league-high 2,051 rush yards.
For the Patriots, stopping Buffalo’s potent offense might just start with stopping its ground game.
To do so, New England will rely heavily on a position group that has run into some challenges recently. While still led by the ever-disruptive Christian Barmore, the team will again be without fellow starter Milton Williams on Sunday. Williams’ de facto replacement, Khyiris Tonga, missed the Patriots’ most recent game against the New York Giants because of a chest injury.
Even with Tonga nearing a return — he was a full practice participant on Wednesday — the team will not just use him and Barmore to go up against Bills RB James Cook and company. As head coach Mike Vrabel noted, the full extent of the defensive tackle depth chart will be needed, including backups such as Cory Durden, Eric Gregory and Joshua Farmer.
“Cory’s continued to improve and play a lot of football for us, and Eric’s taking the opportunities on Thursdays that we’ve had in those competitive practices to get better,” Vrabel said. “We’ll need everybody up front how important the ability to stop the run is this week. That’s just a large part of what they do. They have a lot of confidence in it. Not the only thing that they do — they do a lot of things well — but certainly they’re going to run it until you stop them, and then they’re going to have everything off of it.”
Whereas Farmer joined the team as a fourth-round draft pick back in April, both Durden and Gregory were late additions to the team. The former was signed to the practice squad on August 28, with the latter being claimed off waivers one day later; by Week 1, both were on the 53-man roster to provide depth behind the top trio of Barmore, Williams and Tonga.
Since then, and aided by the ankle sprain that forced Williams onto injured reserve after Week 11, the two August pickups in particular have seen a steady uptick in opportunities. Durden is now the effective No. 3 at the position, and registered his first career start against the Giants; former UDFA Gregory played his first 54 career snaps over the last three weeks.
Farmer, meanwhile, reentered the rotation in Week 13 after back-to-back healthy scratches. He registered a fumble recovery in the last game against Buffalo and also will continue to factor into the mix moving forward.
“Always happy for them,” said Tonga about his young teammates. “Proud of them. Just taking advantage of the opportunities and that’s really what the league is. I think they understand that and everyone does, and I mean coach harps on it every week: prepare as a starter whoever you are because you never know. They definitely have done a good job.”
For the Patriots to clinch their division on Sunday, they will need to continue doing that good job Tonga mentioned — and then some.
