ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — The New England Patriots’ offense faced a juggernaut defense Sunday when they traveled to Buffalo to take on the Bills. Fortunately for the Patriots’ offense, its own defense was even better.
The Patriots squeaked out a 16-10 win over the Bills and put up just 224 total yards on offense. Quarterback Tom Brady was on pace for one of the best seasons of his NFL career before Week 4, but he’s off that pace now after completing 46.2 percent of his passes for 150 yards with an interception against the Bills. He threw for just 3.8 yards per attempt and finished with a 45.9 passer rating. It was Brady’s worst career passer rating in a win.
Brady wouldn’t make any excuses after the game, but the Patriots had banged up skill players, and their offensive line is still working out some kinks. Wide receiver Julian Edelman came into Sunday’s game with a chest injury. Running back Rex Burkhead played sparingly with a bum foot. The Patriots’ offensive line currently is playing with backups at left tackle — Marshall Newhouse — and center — Ted Karras.
“I think we’re all just trying to improve,” Brady said. “We did the best we can do and today was, you know, we can do better than that. So, try to do better next week, figure out all the things that they did well. They did a lot of things well, and I’m glad we won. Glad we’re 4-0.”
The Patriots began drives inside their 20-yard line on six of their 13 possessions. Brady only led two scoring drives, and both came after Patriots interceptions that gave their offense the ball at the 50- and Bills’ 42-yard line.
“You know, I don’t think field position to me, doesn’t matter that much,” Brady said. “Wherever we start, we start. We still have to move the ball for points. So, we just didn’t do a very good job, I would say, of consistently doing the right thing against a really good defense, that certainly plays well at home, but it’s good to win. Whether we win 45-40, or 45-3 or whatever it was, say 16-10, they all count the same. We just have to figure out how to do a better job on offense. Defense, I know they’re going to play great. They’re playing great all season long, and try to score more points than we did today.”
Early in the second quarter, Brady led his team on a 93-yard drive after starting from their own 5-yard line early in the second quarter. But he finished it off disappointingly with an interception inside the Bills’ end zone.
“Yeah, he made a really good play, and I just can’t let that happen,” Brady said. “Just be smarter. You know, that’s — they do actually make a lot of those types of plays. This defense, they’re just, they have some secondary players that intercept the ball. And you know, you’re a little careless and you think you got someone, and windows close pretty quick.
“You know, Julian beat his guy, and then he fell off and made a good play, and that was a bad play by me, so can’t afford to give away points like that, but our defense made up for it.”
Brady wasn’t sacked, but he seemed under siege for the majority of the game. He was under pressure on 30.8 percent of his dropbacks. He completed 2-of-12 passes on those plays for 21 yards. Brady also wouldn’t blame his offensive line.
“I don’t think we did — in any area of the game — offensively, we struggled,” Brady said. “They force a lot of teams to struggle, and if we’re going to score more points, then we have to do a lot better job than we did today. We didn’t, so that’s just the way it goes.”
The Patriots have another week to get healthy before they travel to take on the Redskins in Washington. Then they have a Thursday night home game against the New York Giants. If they can weather the storm through those two games, then they’ll get some much-needed rest with 10 days off before their Week 7 game, a Monday night matchup with the New York Jets.
