For a while it looked like everything would go the Buffalo Bills’ way on Sunday afternoon against the New England Patriots.
• Tyrod Taylor marched his team down the field 80 yards on the game’s opening drive for a 7-0 lead.
• The crowd noise at Ralph Wilson Stadium forced Patriots quarterback Tom Brady to call a timeout on third-and-eight during New England’s first drive.
• Brady then threw an incomplete pass and the Patriots go three-and-out.
From that point, however, it was all about the defending Super Bowl champions.
Buffalo’s next three drives went punt, punt, interception, and the Patriots responded with three straight touchdown passes from Brady. New England ran with that momentum and went on to a 40-32 win, holding off a late push from Taylor and the Bills.
“The game’s not won in the first series. Like you saw today, we came back at the end,” said Brady. “We have a lot of games coming up against this team and they have a lot of good players and a good coach, this is a tough place to play, but it’s great to be 2-0. Certainly to get a division win on the road is always huge.”
The good coach Brady was referring to was Rex Ryan, who during his introductory news conference back in January said, “It’s the Patriots that I want the most.”
He got the Patriots, to the tune of 466 passing yards from Brady — a record for most-ever against Buffalo. Ryan didn’t hold back afterwards, blaming one person and one person only.
“First off, this loss is squarely on one man’s shoulders. It’s on my shoulders. You know, yeah we’ve got to get better as a team, there’s no question. But I have to get better. You know, (Bill) Belichick out-coached me.”
Belichick, of course, disagreed with Ryan.
“No, it’s our players. Our players went out there and played. They made the plays to win the game and I’d say they probably overcame some. Not-so-great coaching on my part.”
Much like Belichick, the Patriots kept their cool in a hostile environment while the hosts let their emotions get the best of them, shown by many of their 14 penalties.
“There’s a difference between coming out ready to go, fired up ready to play and coming out and being totally without poise, without focus, and a lot of stupid, idiotic stuff,” said Bills defensive tackle Kyle Williams. “That plays right in their hands. If you have no poise, no focus, you get caught up in all the B.S. That’s what they do. We did that especially in the first half.”
Taylor had a tough second start for the Bills with three interceptions. He and his teammates have to bounce back quickly; they travel to Miami to face another divisional opponent with the real possibility of starting 0-2 against the AFC East.
“As a team we have to learn from this game and move forward,” said Taylor. “We need to put it behind us and look forward to getting better next week.”