Archives for September 2015

'For those who didn’t watch the game, don’t let the score fool you. The Pats imposed their will for three quarters, holding a 37-13 lead before having a brain freeze in the fourth. But even then, the Bills kept shooting themselves in the foot, and couldn’t stop the inevitable.'

'“We had our moments,” Belichick said. “I mean, we let him run around a lot, too. Taylor ran around. He scrambled for yardage. He scrambled and threw for big yardage. So again, I didn’t think it was all that great. We made some plays. We gave up some plays. I don’t think it was very consistent.”'

'The reason he didn’t blitz? “Well, no, I mean sometimes you blitz and things like that,” Ryan began. “But we thought we had…going in we thought we had decent match ups but obviously it never panned out that way.”'

'Ultimately, Sunday’s game was supposed to be a chance for the Buffalo crowd to break the Guinness record for noise at a sporting event. Instead, it’ll go down as the worst pass defense performance in Bills’ team history. Have to believe that was not the sort of statement that Rex was looking to make.'

'“Their offense is simple,’’ Bradham said. “They run the same plays. Brady just gets the ball out so quickly. We knew what was coming. We just couldn’t stop it.’’'

'Only a stunning case of either arrogance by Belichick or a simple desire to embarrass Ryan (or both) by continuing to throw the ball in a hurry-up offense with a 24-point lead in the fourth quarter kept the Bills in the game and allowed them to make the final score respectable.'

'New England rushed the ball only 15 times, for 56 yards, preferring to keep the ball in Brady’s hands. And the Buffalo defense mostly refused to blitz Brady, out of respect for his ability to burn it with a quick throw. Instead, Buffalo defenders dropped into coverage in the hopes that the defensive line could generate pressure.'

'Buffalo committed eight penalties for 74 yards in the first half alone. The Bills ended up committing 14 penalties total for a back-breaking 140 yards.'

'Julian Edelman scored two touchdowns, and the Patriots needed to stave off a fourth-quarter rally after building a 37-13 lead through three quarters.'

'Buffalo unraveled on both sides of the ball, looking nothing like the team coming off a 27-14 season-opening win over Indianapolis. "We need to be smarter," defensive end Mario Williams said. "We dug ourselves a hole and it's up to us to get out of it."'

'Their attacking defense surrendered 507 yards, and allowed the Patriots to score 21 points over a 5:48 span to open a 21-7 lead early in the second quarter. And their Tyrod Taylor-led offense was held to 127 yards and 13 points, before mounting a 19-point fourth-quarter rally that fell short.'

'The game was delayed for more than 10 minutes. Teammates gathered around Williams, who was put on a stretcher and had his entire body immobilized before being loaded onto the ambulance.'

'Penalty flags flew frequently in this game. The teams combined for 25 penalties for 259 yards. Buffalo had 14 of those penalties for 140 yards.'

'Williams was injured while trying to make a diving tackle on Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman's 22-yard touchdown reception.'

'Bravado only goes so far. The Bills spent the week talking about their disdain for the Patriots and how eager they were for this matchup. The talk after the game was different. "It showed that we're not the best," linebacker Preston Brown said. "We act like we are, but we aren't right now."'