41 thoughts on the Patriots’ vengeful victory over the Bills
Tom Brady and the Patriots' offense prove unstoppable while improving to 7-1.
COMMENTARY1.
I suppose we could find small things to gripe about from the Patriots’ 41-25 victory over the Bills Sunday. The Bills’ offense had its moments, especially when quarterback Tyrod Taylor took off on the run. The Patriots committed a bunch of penalties. Tom Brady took a few cringe-worthy shots from Buffalo’s defense. But you know what that would be? That would be the kind of nitpicking that coaches get paid to do. The reality is that the Bills had no hope of stopping Brady and the Patriots’ offense. The Patriots had six possessions before halftime. Three resulted in touchdowns, one in a field goal. Two of the touchdown drives lasted four plays or fewer yet covered 55 yards or more. It’s as close as an NFL team can come to scoring at will.
2. Brady’s greatness in a nutshell: The play after a near-touchdown pass to Julian Edelman — a 40-something-yard heave on third down in which Brady was blasted as he released the ball — was called back because of a Marcus Cannon penalty, what does he do on the very next play? Nothing much. Just makes an even better throw.
3. Brady’s pass on that next play — a 53-yard Grogan-to-Morgan-style bomb down the left sideline to Chris Hogan to put the Patriots up, 14-3 — is the best deep ball I can recall him throwing in years. That he did it ticked off about the previous play and with a rib cage that probably was still vibrating from the previous hit makes if even more impressive, if that’s possible.
4. No, Rex Ryan, Jacoby Brissett does not make that throw. Not yet. Sure was fun beating up on the freshman team way back when, wasn’t it?
5. Interesting to hear the Bills coach essentially concede the AFC East during his postgame comments. Not that Ryan is wrong — the Patriots are now three games up on the second-place Bills — but such candor when the schedule is barely half complete is unusual, even for him.
6. If the Hogan pass wasn’t quintessential Brady, then the entire first drive might have been. Brady led the Patriots on a methodical 14-play, 70-yard touchdown drive that included four third-down conversions. It’s probably hyperbolic to suggest a drive so early in a game could be demoralizing for the home team, but at the least it was a reminder that this was going to be a considerably less satisfying experience for the Bills’ defense than it was in Week 4.
7. Brady completed 22 of 33 passes for 315 yards and four touchdowns, and the biggest surprise? There were actually 11 incompletions. I’m not sure I can remember three.
8. The Buffalo version of Bob Lobel is queuing up the “Why can’t we get players like that?” lament for Hogan, who is already within 100 yards of his single-season receiving yardage high with the Bills (450, last year).
9. Hogan never had a catch longer than 46 yards with the Bills, and he averaged just 11 yards per catch in his four years there. Immediately following his 53-yard catch Sunday, his averaged jumped to 21.7 yards per catch (on 17 receptions) for the Patriots this season.
10. Fair to say the Bills had no clue what they had. And what do the Patriots have? Probably their best deep threat since they had the greatest deep threat of all, Randy Moss.
11. Whether by coincidence or design, it seems like the Patriots are using Rob Gronkowski as the ultimate only-when-necessary weapon. Actually, maybe there’s a better way to put it: It seems like they feel like they can get a touchdown with him almost any time they need one.
12. It happened last week against the Steelers. Gronk had just four catches for 93 yards — a career day for many tight ends, an average one for him. But he had arguably the biggest play of the game, catching a 36-yard touchdown pass with six minutes left in the third quarter that gave the Patriots a 20-13 lead en route to a 27-16 win.
13. Sunday’s situation wasn’t quite so tense, but when the Bills pulled to within 14-10 in the second quarter, Brady found Gronk for a 53-yard touchdown catch almost immediately to restore order. The Bills had him single covered with a defensive back, which was moronic even by Ryan brothers standards.
14. Not sure if you heard, but that was Gronk’s 69th touchdown, breaking Stanley Morgan’s franchise record. Someone should notify him of this. Bet he’d be interested to know.
15. Morgan was a terrific, criminally underrated player — he was superior to many of his ‘70s and ‘80s peers who got to the doorstep of Canton, if not beyond. I’d take him over Art Monk, among others, in a heartbeat. Imagine the perception of Morgan had he played for the Steelers rather than Lynn Swann.
16. That it took Gronk 73 games to break a record that Morgan needed 177 to set is one more reminder — as if one is necessary — of how extraordinary his career has been so far. He is already a Hall of Fame lock.
17. Between setting the franchise touchdown record, playing near where he grew up, and seeing some of the, er, debris that Bills fans threw on the field, this has to be one Gronk’s favorite career games.
18. Gronk had a rumbling 33-yard catch-and-run early in the fourth quarter in which I’m almost certain a Bills defensive back used a lasso to bring him down.
19. Stephen Gostkowski’s 53-yard field goal just before halftime knuckled more than any pitch Steven Wright threw this season before doinking off the left upright and through.
20. Not that it was a tough choice, but I loved the decision to give him a shot there. If he misses, hey, it was a 51-yarder on a windy day. If he hits it, maybe it’s the one that pulls him out of his slump. That he could be seen laughing about it on the sideline after getting the bounce is a good sign.
21. Dan Fouts was an excellent quarterback. And I swear he was an excellent analyst, even recently. But my self-scouting of my own media perspectives is telling me that my appreciation for him might be based more on his past career than his current one. Lately, he’s come across as Phil Simms with a beard.
22. Example: When Bills punter Colton Schmidt bobbled the snap, then somehow scrambled for the first down (who knew he had breakaway speed for a punter?), Fouts said: “This could be a turning point in the game.” The score was 31-10 at the time. I don’t think he was being sarcastic.
23. One thing I did learn from the CBS broadcast (though I probably should have remembered this myself): The trio of Patriots quarterbacks this season has combined for 16 touchdown passes without an interception. Again: The season is half over, and the Patriots are yet to throw a pick.
24. That’s incredible. I mean, Ryan Fitzpatrick threw six more interceptions in one game than the Patriots have in eight.
25. Yup, I’m as surprised as you are that Brandon Tate is still in the NFL, seven years after the Patriots drafted the supposed return-man extraordinaire four rounds before they took Julian Edelman.
26. Dont’a Hightower’s vicious first-quarter hit on Bills running back Mike Gilleslee — after shedding a block and plugging the hole in one swift motion — was the kind of play that made the likes of Brian Urlacher into enduring legends.
27. Doubt Hightower has ever been Barry Sandersed by Brady before, though.
28. It’s amusing in retrospect that Hightower slipped to the 25th pick in the ’12 draft despite a decorated career at Alabama. He was considered something of a tweener by the Kiper types, too small to play inside and too slow to thrive on the end.
29. Turns out it’s not that he lacked a set position. It’s that he was so damn good at just about everything that no one skill stood out. It’s not much different from the perception of Richard Seymour versus the dominant reality when he came into the league.
30. Hightower has thrived at inside linebacker. But he had a sack in the third quarter that came right out of an Andre Tippett highlight reel, turning the corner on the Bills’ overmatched right tackle and meeting up with Trey Flowers at Taylor’s sternum.
31. He also buried Reggie Bush when the Bills’ running back was setting up to the throw on an option play late in the third quarter. Bush one-hopped a throw back to Taylor as Hightower power-dribbled him off the turf.
32. Interesting to see who emerges as the Patriots’ most dependable third cornerback. Eric Rowe and Justin Coleman both have their moments, but they both had pass interference penalties Sunday. The lanky Rowe is what I imagined Ras-I Dowling would have been had he ever been healthy enough to play.
33. Devin McCourty and Malcolm Butler both had strong days, not only in coverage, but in making their presence known to any Bills receiver who didn’t keep his head up.
34. Oddly enough, the Bills have had the top three picks in the 2006 NFL Draft on their roster at one time or another. They signed No. 1 overall pick Mario Williams away from the Texans with a fat deal in 2012. The perennially underachieving defensive end is now with the Dolphins.
35. Reggie Bush, the No. 2 pick (Saints), is with them now. And they had No. 3 pick Vince Young (Titans) in camp in 2012 before cutting him in August.
36. They’re probably trying to lure No. 4 pick D’Brickashaw Ferguson (Jets) out of retirement as we speak.
37. Another steady, workmanlike game for LeGarrette Blount, who put the Patriots up, 38-17, with his ninth touchdown of the season. He’s become the football equivalent of a closer, a dependable grind-it-out ballcarrier who keeps the clock moving.
38. Presuming he stays healthy and Dion Lewis doesn’t siphon some carries when he returns, Blount’s season stats are going to end up very similar to the 2001 version of Antowain Smith (287 carries, 1,157 yards, 12 TDs). I know, I make that comparison every week. It’s too perfect.
39. Blount has a real chance at setting the Patriots’ single-season record for rushing touchdowns, held by the great Curtis Martin, who had 14 each in 1995 and ’96.
40. By the way, while we’re searching for Blount single-season comps, if you remembered that Stevan Ridley had a 290-1,263-12 season for the ’12 Patriots, your memory is sharper than mine.
41. Taking inventory: The Patriots are 7-1, Brady looks as sharp as ever despite sitting out the first month, the roster is reasonably healthy, the new players have fit in well, they’ve more or less locked up the AFC East, and there’s still room for improvement, especially on defense. Not a bad way to go into the bye, eh?
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