Quarterback Drew Bledsoe has been almost as easy to sack as ex-Bill Rob Johnson, who was run out of town because of his inability to make plays under pressure.

Bledsoe has been sacked 111 times in 34 games with Buffalo - an average of 3.3 per game. Johnson was sacked an average of 3.63.

Bledsoe is coming off a seven-sack performance in a loss to Oakland and it doesn't get easier. On Sunday, the New England Patriots invade Ralph Wilson Stadium eyeing an NFL-record tying 18th consecutive win.

In four previous games against their old signal caller, the Patriots sacked Bledsoe 11 times, intercepted him seven times, held him to an average of 236 yards passing and won three times.

While it has been easy to assign blame to Bledsoe for the mounting sack totals against him - his pocket awareness and footwork have been suspect for years - his teammates are rallying to his defense.

Against the Raiders, receivers dropped "hot read" passes, his line missed blocks and let pass rushers in unabated, and his running backs failed to pick up blitzes.

"Everybody has a hand in what's going on, from the offensive line, to receivers, to running backs, I mean everybody. Each of us has done things that have hurt him," guard Chris Villarrial said. "We've got to get it done for him. Drew's a great quarterback. He's a guy who can take you to where you want to go, so we just have to get better."

Sacks can be an overrated statistic, depending on a team's ability to overcome them. So far, Buffalo hasn't been able to. Against Oakland, six of the seven sacks helped kill five drives. One killed the momentum after a fake punt, another took the Bills out of field goal range.

The Bills spent a good portion of their bye week figuring out how to be better on first and second down so they can avoid those third-and-long situations where teams are blitzing with abandon. On first down against Oakland, Bledsoe threw incomplete five times and Buffalo averaged under 4.0 yards rushing per attempt.

"If we keep it to third-and-six or less, teams can't come after you," Bledsoe said. "They know if you hit a short throw, it's a third-down conversion, and you move on. In third-and-long situations, we expect to pick those up, too, but in order to be effective in the manner we want, we can't have negative plays on first and second down."

Copyright (C) 2004 The Sports Xchange. All Rights Reserved.