FOXBOROUGH – If, early on Monday night, the Patriots look like their running around on defense, that may not necessarily be cause for concern.

That’s because they are playing a Buffalo Bills team that is planning on using a no-huddle offense. And not just any old no-huddle but a hurry-up model similar to the type commonly seen in the two-minute warning.

One would assume speed and stamina are important to containing Trent Edwards, T.O. and Josh Reed in the hurry-up. And while that’s important, Patriots coach Bill Belichick will tell you there’s something even more critical.

“I think the biggest challenge is communication,” Belichick said. “They are used to running plays quickly, getting to the line, calling them and signaling them and not coming back to the huddle, doing it from extended formations, getting lined up and going. And defensively we’re kind of used to doing it in an end of the half type of situation. But on an every-down basis it stresses your communication a little bit and recognition – making sure that you see the offense, see where they are located because they will move them around.

“They don’t just stay in the same formation all the time, which usually in the end of the half you see a lot more of that; you see more of the same formations because fighting time they don’t want to take time to switch people around. Recognition (and) communication are two of the big things and then you can’t let the pace of the game and the communication challenges take away from actually playing: the technique, reads, and doing your job, you can’t let all that other stuff distract you. You get so caught up on that and the ball’s snapped and you don’t do anything.”

This concept of running to the line, trying to keep the same personnel on the field is hardly new. It became very popular in the late 80s when two highly-successful offenses ran it to near-perfection.

Cincinnati, with innovative offensive mind Sam Wyche, used Boomer Esaison to run a hurry-up and wait no-huddle. The Bengals had at least three versions, one called ‘Sugar’ and they ran it to a berth in Super Bowl XXIII while Jim Kelly masterminded the faster version, the ‘K-Gun’ to four-straight Super Bowls in the early 90s. But in the big game, they were a collective 0-5.

“When Sam Wyche was in Cincinnati, they ran all those ‘Sugar Huddles’ with Boomer and those weren’t at the pace of the no-huddle. I think the no-huddle now with Buffalo is similar to the ‘K-Gun’ back with Kelly when he ran it and (Alex) Van Pelt, obviously, that it was the speed of the game. It was how fast they came to the line, how quickly the ball got snapped with sometimes as much as 20 seconds left on the 40 second clock.

So it was a much faster pace than — for example — the Cincinnati no huddle. The big difference here is speed and communication. Again, it’s the teams that huddle at the line and don’t really get back in there. You usually have time to get your communication and do what you want to do, but when they’re going that fast, you’ve got to be ready to match the speed of the game that they’re playing at. So that’s challenging.

One of the biggest challenges of playing against a potential no-huddle getting the defensive linemen in place by the time the ball is snapped.

“Getting everyone in place, all 11 of them,” Belichick said. “I wouldn’t limit it to one group. I think everybody’s got to get in the right spot and know what to do.”

One factor not lost on Belichick is the impact the no-huddle can actually have on his own offense.

“We’ve talked about that and I think that’s one of the things we’ve got to really do a good job with on the sideline is making adjustments, offensively, depending on how long we might have. It will probably have a little bit different flow to the game than it normally does and the same things defensively.

“You come out and sometimes after you’ve been through a no-huddle situation or even a two-minute drive, the players and the coaches, we’re standing on the sideline and have had eight or nine plays and — in all honesty — some of them are running together. Whereas, at the normal pace, most of the time if you say, ‘Hey, what happened on that play?’ The player will say, ‘Well, here’s what happened,’ and they know the play and they know the situation you’re talking about and all of that. In a no-huddle, they’re saying, ‘On that play, what happened?  Did that? Did he? Did he pass protect or did he fake and then check out? What play are you talking about, now?’ They just run eight or nine plays together.”

Belichick, of course,  is the master of controlling everything on his sideline in an organized fashion. But there have been cases, like September 21, 2008 when Miami’s ‘Wildcat’ formation caught the Patriots off-guard. No doubt, Belichick is cautioning his team to be prepared.

“I think defensively and offensively it does put a little bit more stress on your sideline,” Belichick said. “Again, just the pace of the game, it’s third down and your punt return team has got to be ready, your field goal block team has got to be ready, depending on where it is. Then, all of a sudden, you’re back out there playing on a first-down call. So it can happen pretty quickly.

“It just means that everybody’s got to be alert and they’re a lot more used to it than we are because they’ve been doing it on a weekly basis,” Belichick said. “So we’ve talked about that. We’ve tried to practice it, but realistically we can’t simulate it as well as Buffalo can. So that will be a challenge for us.”