Byzantium's Shores: chronicling the misadventures of an overalls-clad hippie

I haven't been making regular predictions of the Bills' games this year, because I'm not terribly good at the predicting business. But I'll make an exception this week, just for kicks.

While I think that the Bills may be better than I gave them credit for initially -- I had forecast a 6-10 season, and they're 5-3 already -- I think that the Patriots are still the defending Super Bowl champions (despite my feeling that their title last year owes more to the sacrifice of ninety-nine chickens in some kind of weird ritual than anything else), and while the Bills are playing quite well with their defense especially showing improvement in their last two games, this game simply means more to the Patriots. If they lose this one, their season is effectively done; they would be 3-5 and have to go at least 7-1 (and maybe 8-0) the rest of the year just to make it back to the playoffs. I think the Bills will be tough, and I think Drew Bledsoe will have a good game, but I think the Patriots will win it in something of a squeaker. So, my pick is Patriots 30, Bills 27.