New England Patriots: 3 Players that must shine vs. Bills in Week 16

3. Tom Brady

Tom Brady has been relatively consistent for the most part this season, his 20th year in the NFL and with New England. But we haven’t seen the quarterback put together a really strong performance really for the last handful of weeks. In fact, most people would say that the future Hall-of-Famer has been an issue for the Patriots in recent weeks.

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The perfect time for Brady to pick up the pace and have a breakout performance for the Patriots would be in their Week 16 showdown against the Buffalo Bills at Gillette Stadium. Throughout the years, we’ve seen the veteran quarterback really turn it up in December to help get the Pats rolling heading into the postseason. They need that again, though there have been no signs of it lately.

In New England’s win over Cincinnati in Week 15 last weekend, Brady finished with just 128 yards passing through the air in the victory while throwing for two touchdowns, no interceptions and converting on 15 of his overall 29 pass attempts under center.

In order for the Patriots to claim the AFC East title on Saturday evening and go into the final week of the regular season in Week 17 riding a two-game winning streak, Brady will have to step up and shine for the defending champions. That won’t be an easy task against a defense that has been one of the best in the NFL this season.

But at this point, we should’ve learned to never count Tom Brady out.