Monday Night Football: Bills @ Patriots

Buffalo Bills @ New England Patriots

The Return of the King. Tom Brady, he of the three Super Bowl rings and the supermodel girlfriend, returns to the field tonight. Brady's mission is to hold on to the New England Patriots dynasty that has been tottering ever so slightly in the last few years. In the NFL, time erodes every dynasty and the Pats have hit the cross-roads, the one the usually takes a team down the path of also-rans instead of 800-pound gorilla. Brady hopes to return the Pats to gorilla status.

For that to happen, priority number one for the Pats it to make sure Brady is not getting hit. The only way teams really break down New England's offense is when they can get pressure on Brady, and with his newly fixed knee, the last thing the Pats want is Brady getting hit. New England's defense is another question mark. They already had a suspect secondary and now they've traded stalwart Richard Seymour to the Raiders. They're also integrating in some new linebackers. Brady's return won't take New England back to the mountaintop again if their defense is not stout.

The Buffalo Bills, on the other hand, face a much different task. They are trying to rebuild a franchise that has struggled mightily over the last few years. And the key to that rebuild - Terrell Owens? The mercurial receiver takes his show to Buffalo and tries to make the Bills relevant again. He can't do it alone, but the Bills will also be without top RB Marshawn Lynch for this game (suspended for the first three games). Trent Edwards will be the guy who is supposed to feed the beast in T.O. and past experience shows the first year is usually harmonious between T.O. and his QB. Anything after that is up in the air.

It won't matter a lick what T.O. and Edwards, and Lynch or his replacement Fred Jackson, do this season is the Bills can't get their offensive line together. The preseason was a disaster for them as the offense sputtered so badly the Bills had to fire their offensive coordinator. The no-huddle offense didn't work as planned, T.O. hardly played because of a toe injury, so they managed to establish zero continuity in the preseason games. Tonight will be a tough assignment for the Bills on defense, they'll need to throw caution to the wind and attack Brady, and hope he's rusty.

Buffalo Rumblings has a very detailed strategy session for the Bills if they hope to pull off the upset. Over at Pats Pulpit, they argue the strategy for the Pats is to sit back on defense and smother T.O. and Lee Evans, not fearing the Bills running game.