New England Patriots: 3 Bold predictions for Week 8 vs. Bills

2. Patriots will lean on the run once again

Over the course of the past few weeks, New England’s offense has struggled to say the least.

Most recently in the Week 7 contest against San Francisco, the Patriots offense recorded just 147 yards through the air on 15 completions, with quarterback Cam Newton throwing for three interceptions and Jarrett Stidham throwing for another once he replaced Newton in the second half.

On Sunday in Week 8, New England might have to try and avoid going through the passing game and will rely on its run game out of the backfield to try and lead the way for this offense.

In six games to this point in the year, the Patriots have shown the ability to run the ball through multiple different players, both among the running back group and at the quarterback position. On Sunday in the road game in Buffalo, New England will have to replicate that and run things through that portion of the offense, especially now with Julian Edelman being sidelined for at least a few weeks due to an injury.

Going into Week 8, the Bills defense has allowed opposing offenses to run for 194 rush attempts (10th most in NFL) and 888 yards (eighth-most in NFL) on the ground. Opponents have also managed to run for nine touchdowns against Buffalo, which is tied for the fourth-most among defenses in the league.

New England has had to lean heavily on its run game so far in 2020, and the Patriots will have to do so this weekend and perhaps even longer unless a trade to help the passing game occurs before the Nov. 3 trade deadline.