(Michael MacDonald September 15, 2009)
Wes Welker received a lot of pressure and dropped a couple of passes but adjusted and provided much needed yardage down the stretch against the Buffalo Bills. For 55 minutes, the Patriots were outplayed. Time of possession favored the Pats as did things like total yardage but the scoreboard showed a hapless Bills team comfortably ahead in the games closing minutes. The Patriots took possession on their own 19 with 5:32 showing on the clock. Tom Brady went into the huddle and said "we're going to win this game." I had forgotten rule number one in any sport: good teams win games that they shouldn't have won. Rule number 2: bad teams lose games they should have won.
Quick. Raise your hands. Who expected a score something like Patriots 49 Bills 17? I sure as heck did. When Laurence Maroney started the game with a 51-yeard kick off return, I was pretty much convinced the game to follow would be a laugher. When the Pats failed to convert, my gut was “huh!”.
Fast-forward almost three hours and the Pats are down 24-13 with five-and-a-half minutes to play and I was thinking about this blog, wondering if I should write about “there’s always next week” when I didn’t really believe it.
For 55 minutes, the Patriots were outplayed. Time of possession favored the Pats as did things like total yardage but the scoreboard showed a hapless Bills team comfortably ahead in the games closing minutes. Time and again, the Pats moved the ball but couldn’t finish off the drive.
The Patriots took possession on their own 19 with 5:32 showing on the clock. Tom Brady went into the huddle and said “we’re going to win this game.”
I had forgotten rule number one in any sport: good teams win games that they shouldn’t have won.
Rule number 2: bad teams lose games they should have won.
Tom Brady passing against the Bills Monday night. (Photo by David Silverman from the Patriots team site.)
Brady looked crisp moving the team down the field. Gone were the dropped passes from earlier in the game when Brady and his receivers were clearly out of sync. Still, I was cringing inside as seconds reeled off the clock while Tom Terrific made audibles and changed blocking assignments on the fly.
Then something special happened. Ben Watson who, frankly, has disappointed in the last couple of years, made a nice move to the end zone and caught an 18-yard bullet from Brady. The score was 24-19 and Brady signaled for the two-point conversion that would pull the Pats within a field goal…except that Brady missed a wide open Randy Moss and instead threw the ball past the back of the end zone.
There was still 2:10 left on the clock and the Pats had all their timeouts left. Could they kickoff, hold the Bills, and force a punt? Or would they go for the obvious on-side kick?
Stephen Gostkowski boomed the ball 2-yards deep into the Bills end-zone. The Bills’ return specialist Leodis McKelvin inexplicably opted to return the ball instead of taking a knee to bring the ball out to the 20-yard line. Brandon Merriweather met him and stood him up and Pierre Woods came from the inside sideline and knocked the ball loose. Kicker Gostkowski was all the way down the field and pounced on the ball.
Benjamin Watson scores the game winning touchdown in Monday night's action against the Bills. (Photo from the team's Web site.)
The Patriots had the ball on the Buffalo 31-yard line. With 50 seconds remaining in the game, Watson caught his second touchdown pass, this one from 16-yards out. Even after missing a second two-point conversion, the Pats were now ahead 25-24 and millions of fantasy players were looking to draft Watson for their week two TE.
So, what can we take from the game? One is that the Patriots dodged a bullet. Brady led teams have done that frequently through the years. Patriots running back Fred Taylor said after the game that it was nice being on the this end of the game for a change of pace instead of being on the side that had victory snatched away at the last moment.
Two is that Brady’s knee is solid and three is that Brady is nevertheless still favoring the knee. Four, though, is that when Brady’s head was finally wrapped around the situation at hand, he proved why he’s the best there is. Tom Brady approaches each snap, surveys the defense, and begins moving players around knowing exactly what the other side is up to.
Five, the Bills should receive credit. They played a solid game but have not yet reached the point where they can avoid The Mistake. When you play teams like the Patriots, The Mistake will kill you every time.
Six, Terrel Owens was a non-factor. The Patriots had one-player on him at all times and a second nearby but even when he was open, he failed to deliver.
Seven, Benjamin Watson has seen the light and His name is Belichick. Watson played a great game even if you discount the two TD passes.
Eight, Jerod Mayo went out with an apparent knee injury. The Pats defense was pretty porous and they can ill afford to lose a player the caliber of Mayo. As of this writing, there was still no word how serious the injury was.
Nine, you have to have new found respect for both Gostkowski and Moss. How Gostkowski can kick the ball and then get down the field in time to recover a fumble is beyond me. I’m not sure that I want to see him doing it often. Randy Moss was very impressive catching passes underneath where we are used to see him charging down the sidelines.
Ten, Brady is not all the way back but an 80% Brady is still 200% of most quarterbacks. Brady is a true student and master of the game. He didn’t throw a single long-ball (and the Bills defense deserves some credit for that) but played gutsy and smart and when push came to shove, the swagger and cockiness returned. And his teammates believed him when he said they would win the game.
Next up is a game at a Jets team that looked pretty good while smoking the Texans 24-7. Last year, the Pats split two games with the Jets. Lifetime, the teams are 49-49 with one tie.
