There’s still plenty of division between the Patriots and their AFC East rivals
COMMENTARY
It’s over.
It was merely one game, the first divisional showdown this season for the New England Patriots, but the NFL might as well just give them five more wins right now and print the T-shirts.
Patriots Rule the East.
Again.
The other games remaining — two against the Miami Dolphins, a pair against the New York Jets, and one more time against Rex Ryan’s Buffalo Bills, whom the Patriot dispatched to the tune of a 40-32 score on Sunday — are merely a formality. Cancel the passing of the torch. Never mind about this season being the year that the Patriots are, finally, ousted from their roost atop the AFC East.
So much for that much-ballyhooed, “new and improved’’ division. One week after all four AFC East occupants were 1-0 for the first time in NFL history, the Patriots put a relative stranglehold on the top spot in the standings. Ryan may one day prove to be a savior for the beleaguered Bills franchise, but the combination of bluster and delusion from upstate New York over the past week was not validated on Sunday. Not this year.
“This year is its own year. This team is its own team,’’ Patriots head coach Bill Belichick said. “We’ll see what we do.’’
The Patriots’ coach failed to add a wink to tell the postgame press corps he was only fooling around.
If “Do Your Job’’ was the mantra that carried the Patriots to their fourth Super Bowl title a year ago, the message for this season might as well be, “Not yet.’’
Not with Tom Brady and his teammates on a mission. If they’ve proven anything over the first two games this year, it is indeed that the AFC East isn’t exactly anyone else’s to claim. Not yet. Not yet, despite a coaching change in Buffalo that has reenergized a fervent fan base, hoping for its team’s first playoff appearance in 17 seasons. Not yet, despite a raucous greeting at Ralph Wilson Stadium, and an early 7-0 lead that had Buffalo fans getting ever further ahead of themselves than they managed to do following a Week 1 upset win over the Indianapolis Colts.
At the end of that game, the crowd chanted, “We want Brady’’ in anticipation of Sunday’s game.
Well, they got him, but maybe we misunderstood the plea. Presumably, a lot of teams would like to have a guy like Brady playing under center for them. Buffalo doesn’t have that. Miami doesn’t have that. The Jets (ha!) don’t have that.
It’s once again Brady and everybody else. Again. And the NFL went and made the league’s best player angry with its deflated football persecution.
Good luck to everybody else, but there’s always next season to entertain similar delusions of grandeur.
“I think the execution is what it ultimately comes down to,’’ Brady said after a 466-yard, three touchdown afternoon. “I think good plays settled them down a bit, and we made a lot of good plays. I thought we left a lot of good plays out there, but it’s a good team, great defense, tough place to play. It was a great win. Good to be 2-0.’’
Brady threw the ball a whopping 59 times on Sunday, the second-most he’s thrown in any game in his career . Those are ’94 Drew Bledsoe numbers there. He completed 38 passes, tossing zero interceptions, and didn’t exactly quell any potential criticism of his coaching staff after the game when asked if the Patriots could have killed off the clock by running the ball more with the game in hand rather than continuing the aerial attack and allowing the Bills in the back door.
“I didn’t think it was all that spectacular by anybody,’’ Belichick said. “But it was good enough.’’
Then again, which do you think was more indicative of the Bills’ chances to be taken seriously: the fact that Buffalo scored 19 unanswered points until Stephen Gostkowski nailed a 25-yard field goal late in the fourth quarter, or the matter of the Bills committing 14 penalties for a whopping 140 yards?
With the polarizing Ryan at the helm, it really could be either. But lean toward the latter.
“Look, there are certainly a lot of things we need to do better, so concentrate on that,’’ Belichick said. “But it’s always good to win a road division game, you know, coming up here and winning in Buffalo. So, that’s always a good thing.’’
The good things outweighed the negative for the Patriots in this one. Aaron Dobson (87 yards receiving) emerged from out under his rock. Danny Amendola made what is already the catch of the year, at a pivotal moment in the fourth quarter, with the Pats clinging to a five-point lead, and sweating. Running back Dion Lewis made sure that Ryan will remember his name this time around. Maybe.
“I still don’t know his name,’’ Ryan said after Lewis rushed for 40 yards on only seven attempts, including a touchdown. “Next time, run the ball.’’
As for Rob Gronkowski, Julian Edelman, and Brady … it was simply more ho hum dominance.
Brady now has seven touchdown passes on the young season, and has come out of the gate with a fire — not to mention a young offensive line that has impressively gelled rather quickly — in his play. In 2014, Brady also tossed his seventh touchdown pass of the season against the Bills … in the sixth game of the season.
Last year, that was also New England’s first division win. A season later, it comes in Week 2.
Fifteen weeks remain in the regular season, but the Pro Shop might as well start selling hats Monday morning.
The Patriots took their first step toward yet another division title on Sunday and leapt out of Buffalo with an unshakeable belief that, despite what you might have heard about the competition, nothing has changed.
Photos from the Patriots’ win in Buffalo
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