Are you a Bill-iever?
Prior to Sunday’s game with the New England Patriots the Buffalo Bills had gone 2-0 and Ryan Fitzpatrick was tied with the incomparable Tom Brady with 7 touchdowns for the lead in the NFL.
Faced with a home game to the Patriots not many gave them a chance, they thought that these would be the same old Bills who would come crashing down to earth and would either lose to the superior Patriots in a high-scoring shootout or be blown away completely like they had been before. The critics cited the games they had played, a blowout against the atrocious Kansas City Chiefs and a comeback win against the inconsistent Raiders who had to make the tricky trip east from their West coast home.
The Bills had lost 15 straight games to the Patriots and there was no real reason to see that changing. It was assumed that the Patriots secondary would finally sort itself out and Fitzpatrick the gun-slinger would be contained while the majestic Brady would carve apart an overrated defence. I readily admit that I subscribed to this view, as nice a story as I thought the Bills wining would be, I didn’t really see it happening.
How wrong I was, the Bills came storming back from 21-0 down to score 17 points in the 4th quarter to win by a final score of 34-31 and are now remarkably one of only 3 teams with a 100% record. Fitzpatrick throwing touchdowns to both Wide Out Steve Johnson and Tight End Scott Chandler, completing 27 of 40 in the process for 369 yards. Fred Jackson ran the ball effectively, getting the all-important game-tying touchdown in the 4th quarter with a 1 yard run.
It wasn’t that the Patriots performed particularly badly, they stormed into the lead with Wes Welker having an incredible game with 2 touchdowns on 16 receptions for 217 yards while Rob Gronkowski shook off the loss of fellow Tight End Aaron Hernandez by catching 2 touchdowns himself. Brady still had 4 touchdowns for 387 yards. The Patriots fell down, however, on their inability to run the ball when they were ahead, failing to eat up time. Belichick’s supposed every-down back BenJarvus Green-Ellis only rushed for 18 yards on 10 carries.
Where I expected the New England defence to rise up, however, it was instead Buffalo who rose to the challenge. Tom Brady had a career high 4 interceptions, the last one of which was carried 27 yards for the go-ahead touchdown by Drayton Florence having been tipped by Marcell Dareus. The Patriots defence on the other hand was unable to halt the charging Bills in the important moments, allowing them to march down the field at the end of the 4th quarter to kick the winning field-goal.
The Patriots often has a game like this every season, where they are expected to win on the back of some remarkable performances and afterwards they always come back stronger. I do not doubt Bill Belichick’s ability to sort out that defence both in the front 7 and in the secondary, the offense will always be incredibly strong and will not be contained by any team, there is definitely no need to doubt the Patriots just yet.
The Bills however are looking very strong, twice they have had a strong comeback win and their offense is looking potent with Fitzpatrick beginning to look better and better. With the Jets currently struggling and not showing their form of previous years the Bills have a chance of making the playoffs as a wildcard. I’m not there just yet but give me a few more wins and I may just become a Bill-iever.
Article courtesy of Will Horrocks.
