Buffalo Bills @ Los Angeles Rams: A ‘Super Bowl matchup’ to kick-off the 2022 season, says Phoebe Schecter

Phoebe Schecter, a former teaching intern with the Buffalo Bills, seems forward to their 2022 season-opening conflict with the defending Super Bowl-champion Los Angeles Rams on Thursday evening; watch Bills @ Rams, reside on Sky Sports NFL, 1.20am, Friday

The 2022 NFL season kicks off on Thursday evening with a curtain-raising conflict that might simply as seemingly function the season nearer in Super Bowl LVII in Arizona on February 12 of subsequent yr.

The defending Super Bowl-champion Los Angeles Rams host the Buffalo Bills, who’re many individuals’s favourites to dethrone them, in Los Angeles – reside on Sky Sports NFL, 1.20am, Friday morning.

The Rams defeated the Cincinnati Bengals 23-20 in final yr’s Super Bowl, whereas the Bills had been defeated by the Kansas City Chiefs within the divisional spherical of the playoffs regardless of edging into the lead with simply 13 seconds left of the competition – finally shedding a heart-breaker 42-36 in time beyond regulation.

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Highlights of Super Bowl LVI between the LA Rams and the Cincinnati Bengals

Phoebe Schecter, Great Britain’s first feminine NFL coach, who spent 11 months as a training intern with the Bills from 2018-19, believes each groups will once more be among the many NFL’s greatest in 2022.

“This should have been the Super Bowl matchup we were watching in L.A. last year,” Schecter informed Sky Sports. “These are two actually excessive calibre groups.

Phoebe Schecter frolicked as a training intern with the Buffalo Bills

“The Bills, final season, actually purchased into the ‘everyone seems to be towards the Bills’ storyline. People nonetheless did not fee them except they performed and beat a ‘first rate facet’, a crew of calibre and gained.

“This year, they can almost utilise – as much of a deep wound it is – those 13 seconds in the playoff loss to Kansas City. They will make sure that pain remains with them so that they never end up in that position again.

“For the Rams, it is a case of how do you handle the expectation inside your crew? How do you handle the surface noise? The stress is on you a lot extra as soon as you have been profitable like that.

“People name it a ‘Super Bowl hangover’ for a cause.

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“It’s one thing that [head coach] Sean McVay goes to must do a extremely good job of managing.

“Bill Belichick, I believe, has said multiple times after a Super Bowl – win or loss – that the new season starts now. It’s forgotten. McVay will stress that too.

“Every yr you must reinvent your self as a crew. The Rams won’t ever be precisely the identical Super Bowl-winning crew once more. We cannot take a look at them like that.”

‘Miller shaping Super Bowl culture in Buffalo’

One notable change to the Rams roster will be highlighted on opening night, with All-Pro linebacker Von Miller – who arrived in LA midway through the season after a trade with the Denver Broncos – now lining up against his former team-mates for the Bills.

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Buffalo Bills linebacker Von Miller says he expecting some ‘weird’ feelings when he faces his old LA Rams team-mates in Week One of the NFL

The 33-year-old Miller, who added a second Super Bowl to go with his Most Valuable Player-performance in winning with the Broncos in the 2015 season, adds a veteran presence to the Buffalo defense as well as premier pass-rushing talent.

“The Bills like to have a veteran within the room,” Schecter said. “We’ve heard them discuss tons about tradition. And you may see Miller is already actually shopping for in

“He is going to bring that leadership to the team, teaching the group what it takes to be a Super Bowl winner – the on-field and off-field work ethic.

“He is of course going to be educating the youthful guys round him – even about the right way to follow. I do know that sounds ridiculous, however when you’ve by no means been to the highest of that degree, you do not know what it ought to appear to be.”

‘Kupp and Donald key to season curtain raiser’

Will Miller give the Bills the edge against his former team on opening night? Not necessarily. Schecter has concerns over Buffalo’s secondary up against McVay’s explosive Rams offense and believes it could be key to deciding the outcome.

“Tre’Davious White out to harm, he’s an enormous loss,” she said. “And they traded Levi Wallace final yr.

“Plus the rookie that they drafted, Kaiir Elam, has not had the most effective coaching camp to date.

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NFL Network insider Ian Rapaport says LA Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford is fully fit to face the Buffalo Bills in their Week One matchup

“And you take a look at that Matthew Stafford and Cooper Kupp combo which we noticed chip away on the Bengals on the final Super Bowl, that could be a concern.

“That stated, there’s the flip facet and Buffalo’s weapons, with Josh Allen capable of throw the ball to Stefon Diggs, Gabriel Davis.

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Watch the top-10 plays by Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen from the 2021 NFL season.

“But how will the Bills offensive maintain up towards the Rams protection and the strongest asset they’ve in Aaron Donald?

“They generally do a great job protecting Josh, and he will use his legs a lot which adds another element that is tough to defend.

“For me, that is what this recreation will come right down to, Kupp versus Buffalo’s inexperienced secondary and Donald towards the O-line – they would be the main matchups.”

Don’t miss a second of the 2022 NFL season with Sky Sports NFL – be part of us for all of the reside motion, beginning with Buffalo Bills at Los Angeles Rams from 1.20am on Friday, September 9.