Buffalo got a lot of offseason attention with a couple of free agent additions. The signing of Mario Williams and Mark Anderson immediately improved Buffalo's pass rush and put offenses around the league on notice.
How much better is this team?
New England will find out in just a few days, though Bill Belichick has already done some homework.
"They move the ball well, they score a lot of points, they gain a lot of yards," Belichick said of the Week 4 opponent. "Defensively theyre very disruptive up front. They have a lot of good corners and coverage players and they play quite a few of them in the game, sometimes as many as seven defensive backs, but frequently five or six so they have a lot of those players. High draft picks, good athletes, that type of thing.
"Of course, the addition of their ends, Williams and Mark Anderson going with Chris Kelsay is a good group up front."
Belichick said the Bills began their transition to a 4-3 defense last season. Bringing in Anderson and Williams has really forged their defensive identity as a pass rushing force to be reckoned with.
New England's coach doesn't have to watch too much film of at least half the pair; Buffalo signed Anderson away from the Patriots in March.
He had 10 regular season sacks, the second highest tally in his seven-year career, in 2011.
Was he brought in to New England as an every down player? No. But he evolved over the season from a vanilla end to a monstrous combination stand-up linebacker.
Final numbers including playoffs: 12 sacks, 36.5 quarterback pressures."Mark is what we saw here last yearlong, athletic, runs well, does a good job of pressuring the edge and has good length. Hes a hard guy to throw around and his length and his speed are a tough matchup for the tackles."
The Patriots know how hard Anderson can hit already. They might really feel it on Sunday.