Patriots or Bills? Who are the real 'Beasts of the East'?

Can Bills take advantage of hobbled Hobbs?

Three weeks ago, the Buffalo Bills were confidently and comfortably in first place in the AFC East. They were the 5-1 darlings of the AFC—the trendy pick to overtake the New England Patriots as AFC East royalty.

Fast forward to today. The Bills have lost two straight games to the Dolphins and the Jets. Their comfortable lead gone, as they now sit in a three-way tie for first with the Jets and the Patriots, one game ahead of the Dolphins.

A game against the defending AFC East champion Patriots would have been important anyway, but the Bills recent swoon makes it monumentally important. If they’re for real, if they’re the team that jumped out to a 5-1 record and not the team who’s lost its last two games, then they need to beat the Patriots.

It’s not going to be easy. The Patriots are playing much better recently. Matt Cassel has improved to the point where Patriots fans are actually starting to get comfortable watching him lead their offense. They’re dealing with their share of injuries, but were it not for a stupid penalty by their backup tight end they’d be 6-2 right now.

What I’m getting at is the Patriots are back to being the Patriots. The AFC East is theirs. They’re not going to let go of it easily. If the Bills want it, they’re going to have to take it.

If they’re going to take it, the Bills need to take advantage of the Patriots depleted secondary.

Rodney Harrison is done for the season, Ellis Hobbs is banged up, Lewis Sanders has a bum hamstring and probably won’t play, and Terrence Wheatley has a busted wrist/hand and hasn’t practiced yet this week.

It’s gotten so bad, the Pats actually went out and signed Jason Webster, a free agent bust they cut in the preseason who wasn’t good enough to get a sniff by anyone else in the NFL.

Lee Evans should be able to torch any defensive back the Patriots decide to put on him. The question is whether or not Trent Edwards, who hasn’t been the same since he returned from his concussion, will be able to take advantage.

Marshawn Lynch needs to run enough to keep the Patriots’ defense honest. If he can force the safeties up to help with the run, the Patriots are in trouble. But the Patriots’ defensive front seven has been pretty good against the run, and I don’t expect that to change this week.

On defense, the Bills will be without Aaron Schobel (foot injury). His absence should help give Matt Cassel the time he needs in the pocket to continue his run of good games. The Bills’ defense needs to contain the Patriots’ receivers. As the Patriots and Randy Moss proved last season, nobody on the Bills can cover Randy Moss. Even a little.

Prediction: Patriots (-4) over Bills

The Patriots are playing better than the Bills right now, they’re at home, and they’re the defending champs. The Bills are close, but they’re not ready to overtake the Patriots just yet.

The better team will win (and cover the spread).

Patriots 24, Bills 17

Sean Crowe is the New England Patriots Examiner. You can email him at scrowe@gmail.com. Check out some of his other work on his Bleacher Report page.