Turnovers, Brady Doom Bills In Pegulas Debut

The atmosphere inside Ralph Wilson Stadium before Sunday’s clash with the New England Patriots as Terry and Kim Pegula were in attendance and on the field along with their family for the first time as Buffalo Bills owners, and 70,185 feverish fans serenaded them with chants of “Terry, Terry” before the game.

As if that weren’t enough to bring Orchard Park to a fevered pitch, the Bills entered their showdown against the Patriots with sole possession of first place in the division on the line, and a victory firmly establishing Buffalo as genuine AFC East title contenders.

Unfortunately the Pegulas learned that while taking the reins of the franchise qualifies them as the boss, it remains the Patriots that effectively own the Bills.

New England benefited by three Bills first half turnovers before unveiling an overwhelming offense over the last 30 minutes in routing Buffalo, 37-22.

Preposterous as it sounds, the Patriots have now beaten the Bills in 21 of their last 22 contests and are 26-3 versus Buffalo overall with Bill Belichick as head coach.

"I think it was a good win by our team today," Belichick said. "I thought the players did a good job. Buffalo was competing hard. They had a lot of energy and there was a lot of excitement inside the stadium. Our guys did a good job on those two drives at the end of the game offensively."

That’s in no smart part due to the genius of Tom Brady, as he verified reports of his demise as greatly exaggerated. Contained in the first half the Brady-led New England passing attack took Buffalo to the proverbial woodshed over the last 30 minutes; scoring 24 points on their four possessions excluding two mercy kneel downs to end the game.

Say what you want about Brady and around these parts it’s typically off-putting, but bottom line is he once more taught a masterclass to the Buffalo defense, particularly in the second half. Brady completed 15-of-17 passes for 274 yards and three touchdowns over the final 30 minutes in improving to 12-2 lifetime against the Bills on their own turf.

For all his attributes throughout a future first ballot Hall-of-Fame career, his greatest is discovering in-game matchups to exploit.  Brady eternally finds the weak link in a defense and then routinely exposes it.

When Brady wasn’t taking it to the air to wreck Buffalo’s chances of winning, the Bills did a fine job of beating themselves.  Buffalo came in tied for the NFL lead in turnover differential but were guilty of three that led to all 13 of New England’s first half points.

Since 2000 the Bills have lost the turnover battle to New England 18 times.  Buffalo has managed to lose every single one of them.

Buffalo also performed incredibly undisciplined for a second straight game.  After overcoming 11 penalties for 74 yards in Detroit last week the referees were every bit as flag happy against the Bills.  In all the team was flagged eight times for a crippling 107 yards, though to be fair some of the calls were once again terrible.

"If you turn the ball over three times and have over one-hundred yards in penalties it’s going to be hard to beat anybody, especially a good team," Bills running back Fred Jackson said.  "They took advantage of it and scored points off our turnovers and anytime you give a team points like that it’s going to be hard to come back to beat anybody."

Kyle Orton’s home debut as the Bills starting quarterback netted mixed results.  He did complete 24-of-38 passes for 299 yards and two touchdowns, but also threw an ugly second quarter interception, lost a fumble and often held the football too long in being sacked five times, including three by Rob Ninkovich.

Following the second quarter Jamie Collins interception of Orton, the Patriots grabbed a 7-0 lead made easy thanks to a 29-yard pass interference penalty by Bills safety Duke Williams on Julian Edelman in the end zone to give New England a first down at the goal line. One play later, Brady found a wide open Tim Wright near the back corner.

A Jerry Hughes sack of Brady on New England’s next possession eventually led to a punt, and the Bills offense finally got things going.  Two key third down receptions by Scott Chandler kept the chains moving and Orton finished the 10-play, 67-yard drive with a perfect seven yard strike to Robert Woods with 3:52 left before the half to tie the score, 7-7.

Chandler had his best game in the NFL in catching six passes for a career-high 105 yards. It was the first 100-yard effort by a Bills tight end since Pete Meztalars had 113 at San Francisco in 1992.

Orton’s second big mistake of the half cost the Bills more points. Chandler Jones beat left tackle Cordy Glenn on a first down pass and strip-sacked Orton before recovering the fumble at the Bills 24 with 2:08 before halftime . To their credit the Bills defense held and forced a Stephen Gostkowski 42-yard field goal.

A horrible sequence of plays led to the Bills going down six at halftime.  Having the ball on their own 30 and just 14 seconds left going into the locker room, C.J. Spiller took a handoff and ran for 15 yards before fumbling a ball recovered by New England’s Zach Moore at the Bills 42.  With six seconds on the clock and no timeouts, Brady connected with Julian Edelman for seven yards to the Buffalo 35 before getting out of bounds with three seconds left.  Gostkowski then drilled a 53-yard yarder as New England took a 13-7 lead in halftime.

Spiller may find himself deeper in head coach Doug Marrone’s doghouse. Criticized often for bouncing runs outside instead of taking what the defense gives him, Spiller lost three yards on his first rushing attempt of the game and only got six carries on Sunday for 19 yards one week after eight yards on 10 carries in Detroit.  The former first-rounder has seemed to lose his way in Buffalo’s offense, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see Bryce Brown’s 2014 debut next week.

The Patriots seemingly took command on their first possession of the third quarter after Bryan Tyms beat Bills corner Stephon Gimore deep and Brady delivered a perfect 43-yard pass for Tyms’ first career touchdown and a 20-7 lead .

At that point New England scored 13 points in a 4:13 span.

Buffalo quickly bounced back on their next drive. A 27-yard third down pass from Orton to Chandler and a 20-yard completion to Sammy Watkins got the Bills near the end zone, and Jackson eventually finished the drive off from the goal line to cut the lead to 20-14.

It was a frustrating day for Watkins. The fourth overall pick in May was shadowed all afternoon by Darrelle Revis and was an afterthought in the game plan.  His catch was the first target after nearly 38 minutes of game action, and finished with just two catches (on three targets) for 27 yards.

Aided by Duke Williams getting beat by Rob Gronkowski for 33 yards and then a 17-yard pass interference penalty by Williams two plays later, the Patriots drove down the field on their ensuing possession before settling for a 40-yard Gostkowski field goal with 3:08 to play in the third.

It was a miserable day for Williams who received a large bulk of playing time due to the injury of starting safety Aaron Williams.  The second-year veteran was often beat in coverage and didn’t help his cause by committing 46 of Buffalo’s 107 penalty yards.

Following a Bills punt, the Patriots scored on a fourth consecutive possession after going 80 yards over 12 plays in 6:08 --- concluding with Brady finding Brandon  LaFell over the middle of the field for an 18-yard touchdown and 30-16 lead with 8:42 left to play.

At least the Bills didn’t quit, as evidenced by their next drive.  Orton completed a 35-yard pass to Woods on fourth and two from their own 40 down to the New England 25. Orton then found Chris Hogan for 17 yards and again to Hogan for eight yards in the end zone on the next play for a touchdown.  Woods caught a two point conversion pass to cut the score to 30-22 with 5:58 left in the fourth.

Woods finished with seven receptions for 78 yards and a score, while Hogan had five for 72 and a touchdown.

Ultimately it came down to the defense making a stand to give the Bills a chance to tie the score, but the unit failed miserably.  Facing third and 16 from their own 29, Brady found Gronkowski, who beat Preston Brown for 16 yards.  Two plays later Brady hit LaFell down the right sideline, who smoked Leodis McKelvin for a game-clinching 56-yard touchdown with 2:49 left.

As is usually the case, Sunday was a triumphant homecoming for Gronkowski. The Williamsville native caught seven passes for 94 yards, not including a touchdown that was called back on a holding penalty.

The way the Bills secondary performed, it would’ve been a successful homecoming for nearly any receiver.  Duke Williams will take a beating over the next several days, but don’t render him the lone scapegoat for a terrible overall effort against New England, particularly as Gilmore and Leodis McKelvin were beaten all afternoon.  Fox TV analyst Tony Siragusa even went as far to suggest the secondary wasn’t hustling.

The Patriots dominated the highly touted Buffalo defense in the second half; putting up 297 yards of offense over the last two quarters.

The trend of losing to New England continues to haunt many Bills players.

“Obviously it’s frustrating,” Chandler said. “They’ve been the top dog in our division since the division formed.”

The Bills (3-3) remain home next Sunday for a meeting with the 2-4 Minnesota Vikings.

Game Notes: Fred Jackson’s touchdown was the 36^th of his career and tied with him Joe Cribbs for seventh on the team’s all-time list… Mario Williams and Jerry Hughes registered sacks for the Bills… While the defense was terrible overall, the Bills continued their trend of shutting down the opposition running game. New England managed just 50 net rushing yards on 27 attempts…  Wide receiver Mike Williams was a healthy scratch… Chris Hogan has set single-game career highs in receptions (5), receiving yards (72), longest reception (24 yards) and touchdowns (1)… The seven receptions for Robert Woods was a career-high… Scott Chandler became the fourth tight end in team history to record at least 150 career receptions.