« Brady's day done; Cassel in | Main | Quick reaction from Bill Belichick »

September 23, 2007

FINAL: Patriots 38, Bills 7

BY ART MARTONE
Journal Sports Editor

FOXBORO -- With less than six minutes to play in the second quarter, the New England Patriots trailed the Buffalo Bills Sunday afternoon at Gillette Stadium. Not by much -- four points -- but they were behind.

That they wound up winning by 31 speaks to . . . what?

More than anything, it speaks to their talent. Their relentless, multifaceted offense wore down and finally broke Buffalo's defense -- which had protected its early 7-3 lead with a pair of noble stands in the first half -- and the Pats rolled to their third straight win of the season, 38-7.

The Patriots drove 89 yards in nine plays on its second possession in the third quarter, the big play being a 45-yard Tom Brady-to-Randy Moss pass that put the ball on the Buffalo 23. Four plays later Brady hit Jabar Gaffney with a four-yard TD pass, giving the Patriots a 24-7 lead.

They increased it 31-7 on their next possession on a four-yard scoring run by Sammy Morris, capping a four-play, 58-yard drive. Moss was in the middle of that one, too, taking a lateral from Wes Welker at the end of a 26-yard throw-and-catch with Brady and taking it 11 more yards down to the 4.

And Moss closed things with a highlight-reel, one-handed catch of a Brady bomb down the right sideline that he took in for a touchdown, a 45-yard play that made the final 38-7.

To read the first-half recap, click here.

The Pats' dominance was evident all over the stat sheet. Get the numbers here.

Come back later this afternoon and evening for Shalise Manza Young's game account, stories by Rob Lee on Randy Moss and Wes Welker, Jim Donaldson's column, and various other news snippets and notes, including a piece on the combined running of Laurence Moroney and Sammy Morris.

Posted by Art Martone  at 3:55 PM | Permalink

Comments

Posted by: WhyDoIt at September 23, 2007 4:30 PM