Buffalo comeback knocks New England out; snaps streak

Sunday, September 25, 2011

John Rooke, GoLocalProv Sports Editor

There might have been some concern with a 15-game win streak over Buffalo before Sunday’s game, especially with the Bills starting the season out 2-0.

With the way New England jumped out of the gate, the concern wasn’t very evident. Shockingly, however, the Bills took advantage of several uncharacteristic Patriot mistakes to come from 21 points down and snap the long losing streak to New England, winning 34-31 at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Buffalo.

Tom Brady’s first pass completion of 11 yards to Wes Welker came on the second play, Welker setting a franchise record with at least one reception in 64 straight games that he has played…and the Patriots moved immediately into their “hurry up” pressure offense. Brady then found Welker for 33 more yards later in the drive, and after a procedure penalty against Rob Gronkowski pushed them back, Brady delivered a 14-yard TD pass to Welker completing the opening drive. It covered nine plays and 80 yards in 5:15, the 4th straight game the offense has scored on their opening possession.

Desperate to answer the opening offensive salvo, on Buffalo’s first play from scrimmage, quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick hit Steve Johnson for 33 yards against Leigh Bodden. The next play, Kyle Arrington intercepted Fitzpatrick on a tipped passed out of Donald Jones’ hands, and returned it 27 yards to the Buffalo 35…6 plays later, Brady found Gronkowski from a yard out for his second TD pass in the first quarter to make it 14-0, with 6:01 left. It’s the 5th straight game for Gronkowski to score at least one touchdown.

The Bills’ next drive included two third down conversions against a Patriots’ defense that was still playing well off of the Buffalo receivers, and Fitzpatrick completed 6 of 7 passes during the march. After a chop block penalty, a 4th down and 14 pass attempt was picked off by Arrington, his second interception on as many Buffalo possessions, ending the drive (and the quarter) in Pats’ territory at the 30-yard line.

After two possessions ended with punts, with 6:01 to play in the second quarter, Brady hooked up with Gronkowski again from 26 yards out, Gronk holding onto a juggled ball as he crossed into the end zone…and New England stretched their lead to 21-0. In the meantime, pressure continued to build against the Buffalo offense, with the Bills finding themselves in an ever-increasing hole. Thanks in part to a roughing-the-passer penalty against Rob Ninkovich keeping the drive alive, Buffalo sustained a drive to the Patriots’ 11 yard line, where Fitzpatrick found Johnson on a fade route, beating Devin McCourty on the play, for their first score to make it 21-7 with 1:56 left before the half.

That’s way too much time left for a guy like Brady.

Aided by two unnecessary roughness penalties against the Bills’ defense, Brady quickly moved the Pats into position at the Bills’ 13, before a tipped ball intended for Danny Woodhead was picked off by safety Bryan Scott. It was only the second interception for Brady in his last 444 pass attempts, but it ended a great chance at points on the board before halftime. And it also proved to be a very big turning point in the game, overall. Buffalo then proceeded to move the football into position themselves, following a 27 yard screen pass to Fred Jackson, putting the Bills at the Patriots’ 32 with 22 seconds left. Buffalo settled for a 42 yard field goal from Rian Lindell to make it a 21-10 game at halftime.

With the Bills receiving the second half kickoff, that put a little pressure on the Patriots’ defense to make a stand, or otherwise risk losing control of the game. Three-and-out does a defense good, however…which put the Pats in position to apply pressure of their own.

But it didn’t happen. Brady threw over the middle for Chad Ochocinco, and Leodis McKelvin stepped in front of Ochocinco for the interception, putting the Bills at the Patriots’ 39 yard line. Tough running from Fred Jackson led the Bills to the New England three, where Fitzpatrick then found tight end Scott Chandler for the score to make it 21-17, with 9:34 left in the third quarter.

Seventeen unanswered points for Buffalo in just over 14 minutes of game time, and the Patriots really had no one to blame but themselves, thanks to their own miscues.

The Patriot offense took matters back into their own hands, quickly moving from their 14 to the Bills’ six, before having to settle for a 23 yard field goal from Stephen Gostkowski to make it 24-17 with 4:51 remaining in the period.

With both defenses tightening somewhat into the fourth quarter, and the score still at 24-17, Zoltan Mesko pinned the Bills deep in their own end of the field with a punt at the six yard line. The Patriots brought a rare blitz on Fitzpatrick to force the Bills into a three-and-out, setting the offense up at their own 46 yard line. Moving swiftly toward the red zone, Brady was picked off for a third time trying to connect with Gronkowski in the end zone. George Wilson came up with the ball, and again the Patriots were turned away.

This time, the Bills made the Patriots pay for their continued mistakes. With Josh Barrett apparently intercepting Fitzpatrick in the end zone, Sergio Brown was called for interference away from the play, resulting in a 31-yard penalty…and it set up a one yard TD run from Jackson to tie the score at 24 with 10:36 left. 46 yards in penalties, all told, were committed by the Pats’ defense on the drive that tied the game, with the drive covering 95 yards in just two offensive plays.

From this point, things really unraveled.

On the first play after the kickoff from their 20 yard line, Brady was picked off for a fourth time, with his pass tipped by Marcell Dareus and intercepted by Drayton Florence, who returned it 27 yards for the go-ahead score. Now trailing for the first time, Brady found Ochocinco wide open from 40 yards for an apparent touchdown…but the pass was dropped by Ochocinco on the over-the-shoulder attempt. Undaunted, Brady found old reliable – who else but Welker? – on a big third down attempt to keep the drive alive, then again on a first down play to set the offense up at the Bills’ 13. Yet another completion to Welker set the Pats up at the one, where it took four attempts to tie the game – two failed runs by BenJarvus Green-Ellis preceeded a procedure penalty by Logan Mankins. On 4th down, Brady found Welker from the six, with 3:25 left in regulation, to make it 31-31. The TD grab by Welker set the franchise record for receiving yards in a single game with 217, breaking the mark of 214 yards previously held by Terry Glenn (set in1999).

The problem hasn’t been offense, however. It’s been the defense, or an alarming lack thereof. Fitzpatrick found Jones for 29 yards against McCourty, then Jackson for another 12 to move Buffalo into FG range at the two-minute warning.

They almost didn’t need the field goal. On the next play, Fitzpatrick hit Jackson for 38 yards right up the middle to the one. Buffalo then forced New England to call both of their remaining time outs, after taking a knee at the one yard line. The Patriots tried to force a fumble on third down and were then flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct, giving the Bills an automatic first down. Three more plays ran down the clock, which also would keep the ball out of Brady’s hands in the final seconds. Lindell came on to knock home a 28-yard field goal as time ran out, giving Buffalo an improbable 34-31 comeback win.

And in the process, end more than eight years of futility - covering 15 games - against New England.

"It stings, especially in the division, and we feel like we were in control of the game," said Patriots linebacker Jerod Mayo. "We just didn’t make the plays when we needed to."

Post Game Notes

The Patriots began the game particularly thin at tight end (Dan Gronkowski was released Thursday) with only one active player (brother Rob), and in the secondary (Pat Chung and Ras-I Dowling inactive with injuries). New England compensated by opening with 3 and 4 receiver offensive sets, while on defense (and expecting Fitzpatrick to open it up) the Pats began with five defensive backs in the game…in addition to Chung and Dowling, inactives were defensive linemen Albert Haynesworth (back) and Mike Wright (concussion), receiver Taylor Price (hamstring), offensive lineman Sebastian Vollmer (back), and tight end Aaron Hernandez (knee)…

Brady’s interceptions in the second and third quarters actually came on back-to-back pass attempts…just past the midway point in the third quarter, Brady found Gronkowski over the middle to put him at 1227 yards passing on the season, the most in three games to start a season by any quarterback in NFL history…2940 days have passed since the last Bills win over New England…the four picks also match Brady’s total for the entire 2010 season, and is his 5th career 4 INT game (1st since 2006)…kudos to the Bills defense for jumping up at the line of scrimmage to knock down several Brady pass attempts, including getting tips on a couple of the interceptions…the Patriots’ 31 points is their 11th straight regular season game scoring 30 or more, three short of tying the NFL record…the Bills’ 3-0 start is just the ninth in their franchise history, and impressive considering their 0-8 start to the season in 2010…it’s the second straight week for Buffalo to comeback from a double-digit deficit, as they trailed Oakland 21-3 last week before winning 38-35, scoring touchdowns on their final five possessions…the NE loss stops a 10-game regular season winning streak…

"I think the turnovers really killed us in the end," Welker said. "We were able to do some good things out there and moved the ball pretty well and things like that. We get in key positions, we can't turn the ball over and make some of those mistakes, and pick 6's and different things like that. We didn't play very good complementary football with each other. The Bills came out there and played hard and kept fighting, and they were definitely a tougher team than us today."

The more you watch the Patriots defense, the more it becomes evident there is very little change from last years’ version. There is no consistent pass rush, which leaves a young and somewhat currently undermanned secondary very vulnerable…it is more alarming, however, knowing that the defense played almost the entire game with five defensive backs and they still could not stop Ryan Fitzpatrick or the Bills, which shows the need for some kind of pressure up front. "I wish I knew," Devin McCourty said. "If I had all the answers, it’d be fixed. It’s just about going back and watching film. But, week by week, we gotta get better."

Welker’s record-setting day included breaking Ben Coates’ franchise mark of at least one catch in 63 straight games. His 16 catches for 217 yards are career highs, and Gronkowski’s day with seven receptions and two TD’s also included a career high 109 yards receiving…Brady’s 1326 yards passing (30-45, 386 yards, 4 TD’s, 4 INT against the Bills) in the first three weeks is an NFL record for most passing yards over the first three games of a season…Drew Brees (1,257 – 398, 510, 349) had previously set the NFL mark in 2006. Also:

• Brady surpassed Kurt Warner (1,221 in 2000) for the most passing yards in NFL history through a team’s first three games.

• Brady set the New England team mark for the most passing yards through the team’s first three games. Drew Bledsoe (1,166 – 421, 380, 365) set the record in 1994.

• Brady set a personal career-high in a three-game stretch. His best previous three-game stretch was 1,048 yards passing in 2007 (388, 354, 306).

The 4 touchdown performance is also Brady's 12th straight game played in the regular season with two or more TD passes, and also 19 straight games with at least one...

"Obviously, it was a disappointing loss for us today," Bill Belichick said afterward. "It was a hard-fought game. Buffalo did a good job. It's always difficult coming in here. They made a few more plays than we did today. We just have to do a better job -- obviously turnovers, the long drive, penalties, all those things didn't help us. We've just gotta do a better job on that."

One-and-One:

Nitpick - There are almost too many to choose from, but let's start with the obvious...Buffalo had a clear game plan to disrupt the Patriots' ability to hit passes over the middle of an opposing defense, so the Bills' linemen were instructed to jump almost every time Brady let the ball go. The plan worked, resulting in four interceptions, two of which were tipped at the line before the secondary picked them off. The Patriots never really adjusted from their initial philosophy, seemingly ignoring Buffalo's strategy. It backfired.

Superlative - Brady is the easy choice here with his NFL-record performance through three weeks, but his four interceptions take away from his game. Wes Welker, however, is this teams' most valuable player (outside of Brady), constantly coming up with big catches...16 of them (a career high), for a New England-record 217 yards in this one. "Pretty much (the loss) detracts from everything," he said. "You know, what should be a great fun day of breaking records and doing all those things, it's totally the opposite."

Sneak Peek @ Next Week - @ Oakland:

The Patriots stay on the road and play at Oakland next Sunday in a 4:15 pm ET kickoff...Oakland enters the game on top of the AFC West, thanks to a 34-24 win over the New York Jets on Sunday. Darren McFadden rushed for 171 yards and two touchdowns to lead the way for the Raiders, who rushed for 234 yards as a team against the Jets. That may - or may not - be good news for the New England defense, which has had real problems defending the passing game over the first three weeks of the season. Sebastian Janikowski, who kicked an NFL-record tying 63-yard field goal against Denver, hit two more against New York from 49 and 54 yards...like the Patriots, the Raiders collapsed in their second half (a week ago) against Buffalo, dropping a 38-35 decision. But Sunday against the Jets, they showed few ill effects from the last-second loss...and Oakland is a mere 14 seconds away from being 3-0 this season...