Officiating mistakes hurt Patriots early, Bills at the end

Patriots wide receiver Danny Amendola caught a pass from Tom Brady at the Bills’ 45-yard line and broke downfield. Coach John Fox said the Bears waived Clausen because other teams were showing interest in Fales, a sixth-round pick in 2014.

A Dan Carpenter field goal tied the game at ten early in the third quarter. He seldom beats them, but he often bewilders them as he did for long stretches last evening at Gillette Stadium, also known as The Close Shave whenever this meeting happens. The Patriots made that moot with a go-ahead touchdown later in the quarter, set up by a 41-yard catch and run by Amendola.

“Just one of those plays”, Brady said.

Instead, in the wake of Monday night’s 20-13 loss to the Patriots, Ryan offered little more than soft-spoken praise for his opponents and acknowledgments of the gap that exists between his longtime rival and his new team. The Patriots receiver appeared to have a clear opportunity to score, with just one defender between him and the end zone, but a phantom officiating whistle blew and halted play before Amendola collected Brady’s pass.

Yet at the end, the scoreboard said 20-13, and the Patriots’ W-L column said 10-0. “He came through with a couple big plays last week against the Giants and had them today”.

The game was filled with mistakes, penalties, injuries and turnovers – including two fumbles on a single punt, a rare missed field goal by New England’s Stephen Gostkowski and an inadvertent whistle that led to one of many lengthy conferences among the officials.

The final result was just one touchdown for the Bills and a fairly mundane victory for New England. For the second time against the Pats, he didn’t look like a franchise quarterback.

It noted that Tom Brady was able to complete 20 of 39 passes for 277 yards while James White made a 6-years-run during the third quarter to give his team a 10-0 lead.

However, the official on the sideline said Watkins was down in bounds, kept the clock rolling, and the game was over. The worst play came on a field goal attempt, when tackle Cameron Fleming was late coming onto the field, forcing New England to waste a time out. Fifty-nine seconds later, Brady found Watson for a 16-yard touchdown and the Patriots won an improbable game, 25-24. “When we do, we’ll see if it’s a different outcome”. He hit Danny Amendola for 18 yards, then Brandon LaFell for 24.

NOTES: McCoy is the first Buffalo player to rush for more than 100 yards in four consecutive games since C.J. Spiller in 2012…. “They got a good defense”. There were other oddities in the game, including Brady’s fourth interception of the season; another was negated by offsetting penalties. They make mistakes. But they know how to win. They’re still not on the Patriots’ level. They have Rob Ninkovich getting a sack in the final seconds to seal it.

Brady has been exceptional in making it work with all kinds of makeshift wideout corps over the years, but as great as he is, he’s most human – and most frustrated – when he has fewer guys on whom he can rely.

It’s a feather in the Bills’ cap to hold down the NFL’s highest-scoring offense, albeit one missing star receiver Julian Edelman.

Despite all these things, the Patriots either controlled the game or seemed to control the game throughout the duration due to their perception.