Tom Brady and the New England Patriots held off Tyrod Taylor and the Buffalo Bills to earn a 20-13 win on Monday Night Football. Nobody can dispute that Rex Ryan had his Bills team playing about as well as anybody expected, but it wasn't enough to lead them to victory over a tough Patriots team that has now moved to 10-0 on the season.
Bills vs. Patriots 2015 final score: New England holds on for 20-13 win
The Patriots survived a late comeback attempt by the Bills and are now 10-0 on the season.
It was a rough game for the Bills' offense and for New England's receivers. Taylor and Sammy Watkins were both banged up for the Bills, with the former showing discomfort for most of the fourth quarter. For the Patriots, they lost Aaron Dobson and Danny Amendola to injuries and were already without Julian Edelman.
Still, Brady threw for just under 300 yards and had a touchdown, all without getting much help from his running game. LeGarrette Blount led the way for the Patriots with 56 yards on 16 carries. Taylor finished with 233 yards with no touchdowns and no interceptions. LeSean McCoy led the Bills with 82 yards and a touchdown.
The first half was a defensive struggle. Ryan is a defensive-minded coach and he is borderline obsessed with beating Brady and Bill Belichick, so it shouldn’t be surprising that the Bills looked up to the task on Monday. Ryan’s team looked better-prepared to handle a Brady and Rob Gronkowski-based offense than any other team this season, but given any kind of opening, Brady can and did take advantage.
After the Bills missed a field goal as the first half neared its end, the Patriots took over at their own 38-yard line. A couple plays later, the Patriots were suddenly in Buffalo territory. On a 3rd-and-10 with under 20 seconds to go in the half, Brady found James White for a 20-yard touchdown to give the Patriots a 10-3 lead going into the second half.
Stephon Gilmore had a great game for the Bills. He was consistently solid in coverage, had a great interception of Brady and had this beautiful defended pass here:
This was Brady’s first game without Edelman this season. Amendola did his best to fill the gap and he played well. He would have had even more yardage if the referees didn’t inadvertently blow the whistle on a sure-fire touchdown at the start of the third quarter. Amendola had nobody else to beat after catching a pass, but the whistle blew and several minutes passed while the referees discussed what to do.
New England will travel to Denver to take on the Broncos in its Week 12 game on Sunday Night Football. The Bills will continue their road trip with a game against the Kansas City Chiefs earlier that same day.
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