Bills at Patriots in real time:
1:04-6-yard run by Harvard’s Ryan Fitzpatrick on Buffalo’s 1st play.
1:06-6-yard catch by Stevie Johnson, there aren’t enough grown men named Stevie these days.
1:08-Holding penalty on Buffalo wipes out a 1st down, Corey Glenn held Chandler Jones. Haha on the next play, the Bills commit a false start. What a team! Buffalo punts after running a draw on 3rd and 21.
1:10-Courtesy of Ian Eagle: Tom Brady is 19-2 against the Bills in his career.
1:12-4-yard run by Stevan Ridley on New England’s 1st play.
1:13-Brady’s pass is deflected straight up in the air but Bryan Scott drops the easiest interception of his life.
1:13-7-yard catch for Welker, 1st down. 10-yard run by Ridley.
1:14-12-yard catch for Brandon Lloyd, 5-yard catch for Deion Branch.
1:15-Welker drops what would have been an easy touchdown, he was wide open. He usually saves drops like that for the Super Bowl, too soon?
1:16: 6-yard catch for Branch nets another 1st down.
1:18-What the hell is going on? Branch drops an easy catch which Leodis McKelvin also lets slip through his hands. Pats settle for a 43-yard field goal, 3-0 New England.
1:23-C.J. Spiller with one of the greatest 3-yard gains in the history of football.
1:24-The Bills are such a joke, it’s hard to even get into these games. Vince Wilfork hits Fitzpatrick and he fumbles, Jermaine Cunningham recovers it at the Buffalo 13.
1:25-5-yard run for Ridley. Brady looks for Rob Gronkowski in the end zone, it is incomplete but the Bills are called for pass interference even though the ball is not catchable. Hmm.
1:27-1st and Goal from the 1, Ridley stacked up for a 2-yard loss.
1:27-Another pass interference, this time on Stephon Gilmore. Ridley scores on the next play, 10-0 Patriots. 6th rushing TD of the season for Ridley, who leads the NFL in rushing (look it up).
1:32-This is getting ridiculous, Buffalo opens their next drive with another penalty. Chan Gailey should be fired at halftime for this debacle.
1:33-Justin Francis drills Fitzgerald for an incompletion.
1:34-15-yard catch and run for Fred Jackson gives Buffalo a much needed 1st down.
1:35-7-yard run for Spiller.
1:37-22-yard catch for Donald Jones.
End of 1st quarter: Patriots 10, Bills 0 but Buffalo is driving in New England territory.
1:40-1st penalty on the Patriots is a costly one, 15 yards for grabbing Jackson’s face mask.
1:42-Stop me if you’ve heard this before: holding on the Bills. Their 7th penalty in the 1st half.
1:43-Sack by Rob Ninkovich as Fitzpatrick got happy feet in the pocket. Rian Lindell hits a 41-yard field goal to cut it to 10-3 Patriots.
1:49-19-yard catch for Welker.
1:50-24-yard catch for Gronkowski, great touch throw by Brady over a few Bills defenders. 7-yard catch for Welker after Brady gets flushed out of the pocket.
1:51-15-yard catch for Danny Woodhead gives New England a 3rd down conversion. 7-yard catch for Woodhead on the next play. You can’t stop Danny Woodhead, you can only hope to contain him. 15-yard TD run for him. 17-3 Patriots.
1:59-23-yard catch by Bills tight end Scott Chandler.
2:00-18-yard catch by Chandler.
2:02-13-yard run by Spiller, don’t know why he doesn’t get more touches. Him and Jackson are clearly their best weapons.
2:03-14-yard TD run by Jackson, who spun out of a tackle then broke a few more. Bills are back in it, trailing 17-10.
2:08-Brady gets bailed out on a bad pass as Jairus Byrd is called for pass interference on Gronkowski. The pass wasn’t even thrown to Gronk, it was intended for Edelman.
2:09-Make it nine penalties for the Bills (2nd on their defense) as Gilmour grabs Shane Vereen’s face mask.
2:11-The refs aren’t cutting the Bills any slack either, Gilmour gets called again for a questionable pass interference as Lloyd falls down in the end zone.
2:13-Beautiful 2-yard touchdown catch for Gronk, he dove and was able to get his hands under it. Patriots lead 24-10. 41st consecutive game with a TD pass for Brady.
2:21-Long catch for Chandler on 3rd and 8 then a 9-yard catch for Jackson, even more interesting is that Dan Fouts dropped an old skiing reference of some guy I’ve never heard of before. Magical.
2:23-Penalty on Alfonzo Dennard for a late hit on Fitzpatrick after he was out of bounds.
2:24-Jones’ catch gets it down to the 3.
2:25-Johnson almost catches a TD at the back of the end zone but Dennard hit him and he wasn’t able to get both feet inbounds.
2:26-3-yard TD catch for Chandler who was uncovered. The Patriots defense is right back on track after the bye week. They are still as horrible as we remember them. 3rd TD for Chandler against the Patriots this season. Buffalo cuts it to 24-17.
2:29-6-yard catch for Woodhead and that should do it for this uneven 1st half.
Halftime: Patriots 24, Bills 17
New England will win this game but they have to learn how to consistently put away garbage teams like Buffalo. No reason to let them hang around and make it competitive.
2:44-15-yard run by Ridley.
2:47-11-yard catch for Lloyd.
2:48-The drive stalls as Brady ducks his head in anticipation of getting sacked by Kyle Williams. Sweet, Logan Mankins is limping to the sideline.
2:53-Jermaine Cunningham with a sack, didn’t see that coming.
2:54-Jerod Mayo crushes Jackson on a short run. Bills are forced to punt from their own end zone. Another Bills penalty: unsportsmanlike conduct.
2:59-Woodhead with an 18-yard touchdown catch and run, his 2nd of the day. Great job by Brady to keep the play alive. 31-17 Patriots. 1st multi-score game in Woodhead’s career.
3:06-Nice diving 19-yard catch from Johnson.
3:07-20-yard catch by Spiller, 11-yard catch for Jones. New England’s zone defense as always is working to perfection.
3:09-Great highlight package of Fitzpatrick at Harvard, followed by a graphic featuring Jay Fiedler and Sid Luckman (two other Ivy League QBs that made the NFL).
3:10-Buffalo goes for it on 4th and 4, no problem. Johnson was wide open for the catch and conversion.
3:12-Offsides on Brandon Spikes and a catch by Johnson gets it down to the 2 but Glenn gets another false start (13 penalties, 142 yards for Buffalo, a season-high).
3:13-Jones is down at the 1 after a catch. Jackson gets stuffed for no gain, he came very close to getting the ball over the goal line.
3:14-Dont’a Hightower gets held (not called) on the edge and Jackson scores on a 1-yard TD run. Buffalo has made it a one-score game again, 31-24 Patriots.
3:18-7-yard catch for Branch. 12-yard catch for Welker.
3:19-24-yard run by Ridley.
End of 3 quarters: Patriots 31, Bills 24 but New England is moving it.
3:23-48-yard field goal by Gostkowski, Patriots up 10 (34-24).
3:27-A Bills penalty on the kickoff pins them back on their own 5. This should end well.
3:28-9-yard run by Jackson. Some awkward personal grooming questions as Ian Eagle asks Fouts how he trims his beard? Ummmm.
3:29-13-yard run by Jackson, the Patriots figure why start playing defense now. That would be boring.
3:30-11-yard catch by T.J. Graham.
3:32-Offsides on Cunningham and then Spikes gets called for rough the passer. It wouldn’t have been a penalty a few years ago but since Fitzpatrick’s helmet popped off, the hyper-sensitive NFL refs had to throw a flag.
3:33-25-yard screen pass to Spiller when he made about 40 Patriots miss. Great play by him, pathetic tackling by the Patriots.
3:34-Jackson bounces off tackles to the 1 but Devin McCourty forced a fumble and Kyle Arrington recovered it. He was ruled down by contact but on replay, it looked like his knee wasn’t down yet. I bet that gets reversed, if so it is the most Bills play of all-time.
3:38-It is overturned, Patriots ball at the 1. Brady’s 1st pass is knocked down, next play Welker stumbles and drops a wide open pass.
3:40-Only the eight 3 and out for the Patriots this season as they chose to throw it all three times. Thanks Josh McDaniels.
3:43-Long run for Spiller then Mayo throws him down 5 yards out of bounds. Does anybody coach any of New England’s defensive players? 11-yard run by Spiller who almost tightroped the sideline for a TD.
3:47-Ninkovich jumps into the neutral zone, Patriots fans want to jump into traffic watching this team play.
3:48-Fitzpatrick throws it right at two Patriots defenders but Spikes knocks it down with one hand. No worries, next play New England goes for an all-out blitz and Jones is wide open for a 2-yard TD catch.
34-31 Patriots w/7:47 left in regulation.
3:52-5-yard run by Ridley, next play is a toss to him that goes nowhere.
3:53-13-yard catch for Lloyd on 3rd down, this time I can forgive him for simply kneeling down after he caught it.
3:54-9-yard run for Ridley and another Patriots 1st down. If New England’s offense can’t put it away against Buffalo, they might as they well forfeit the rest of the season.
3:55-A pass to Gronk is behind him and gets deflected, Brady is lucky that didn’t get intercepted.
3:55-21-yard catch by Welker after he caught a screen on one side then reversed field to the other side.
3:56-Ridley runs it down to the 1. He gets stuffed on the next play then commits a false start. Mercy.
3:59-1st and Goal and New England didn’t score a TD. Gostkowski’s 21-yard field goal makes it 37-31 w/2:06 left. So they left it up to the miserable defense.
4:05-21-yard catch by Johnson, 14-yard catch by Jones. The Bills are at New England’s 46.
4:06-Jones nearly made a spectacular catch by Marquice Cole knocked it out. Buffalo has to take an injury timeout as Jones apparently is shaken up.
4:08-7-yard catch by Jackson, he fumbled it and the Patriots recovered it but it was wrestled away by a Bills offensive lineman.
4:12-Chandler with an 8-yard catch for a 1st down. Spiller with a 14-yard catch and he gets out of bounds, key since Buffalo doesn’t have any timeouts left (they burned the last one on an injury timeout for Jackson).
4:12-Chandler with an 8-yard catchfor a 1st down. Spiller with a 14-yard catch and he gets out ofbounds, key since Buffalo doesn’thave any timeouts left (they burned the last one on an injury timeout for Jackson).
4:13-Chandler can’t grab a pass inthe back of the end zone.
4:13-Thanks for playing Fitzpatrick, you knew he’d make his standard backbreaking mistake. An interception to McCourty in the end zone seals it.
Final: Patriots 37, Bills 31
I thought a win couldn’t get any lower than New England’s 29-26 OT victory against the Jets in Week 7 but this was worse. A win is a win and all the other standard clichés but this is absurd. What will happen when they play real teams? Like the Colts next week or the Texans and Niners in December?
