Poll: 91% of Bills voters expect Buffalo to beat New England in Week 4

Buffalo brings a 3-0 record into Sunday's AFC East matchup with the 1-2 New England Patriots at Highmark Stadium, and fan polling shows 91% expect a Bills victory.

The unbeaten Buffalo Bills host the 1-2 New England Patriots on Sunday in a Week 4 AFC East game at Highmark Stadium. For Buffalo, now 3-0, a victory would create a cushion between itself and its division rival in the standings.

The perfect record has arrived amid a thorough reshaping of the coaching operation. Joe Brady is running the team in his first season as head coach, and the defense is being rebuilt on the watch of new coordinator Jim Leonhard. Rough patches were widely forecast for a club in transition, but with Josh Allen at quarterback the results have kept coming — and the win column carries more weight than any other figure in professional sports.

That success has shaped the mood of the fan base. In polling by Buffalo Rumblings, 91% of respondents picked the Bills to handle the Patriots in Week 4, while the other 9% declined to back the home team. Buffalo is once again being viewed as a genuine contender, having capitalized on each chance the opening stretch of the schedule supplied.

Supporters are just as upbeat about the bigger picture. In the same survey, 88% of respondents endorsed the path the organization is on under Brady, Leonhard and Brandon Beane, who serves as president of football operations and general manager.

Across New England's fan base, the mood has flipped within a year. Patriots supporters once imagined a new dynasty organized around quarterback Drake Maye; that certainty has since given way to heavy doubt. Only 9% of Pats Pulpit voters remain sold on the club's trajectory under head coach Mike Vrabel and his staff, and much of the worry traces to how Maye has played through the first three games of the season.

Recent history gives the Patriots reason for patience. They opened the previous campaign in comparable fashion, then converted their schedule and several high-leverage matchups into a Super Bowl berth. The gap between that finish and the current unease shows how swiftly NFL fortunes can turn.

Two SB Nation national surveys added wider context. One asked which of six teams that lost in Week 3 stood in the most trouble: New England was not among the options, and the Los Angeles Chargers drew the largest share of votes, at 47%. New England's first-place schedule leaves little apparent margin for error, yet those voters did not single the club out as a team in crisis.

The second survey asked fans to set a price on a proven reserve quarterback. The leading answer, chosen by 40%, was a Day 3 draft pick; 36% would accept parting with a Day 2 selection; 20% preferred a free-agent signing; and 4% said they would go as far as trading a first-round pick. The report closed by asking Bills Mafia where Kyle Allen falls on that scale.

The New England Patriots visit the Buffalo Bills on Sunday, October 4, at Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park, New York. Kickoff is set for 1:00 PM EDT, and the game airs on CBS.