Thoughts on the Game
 

I missed the first half of the game but saw most of the second half. Some thoughts:

1. I think this was a great outcome for us ... much better than a 38-10 shellacking of the Bills. We were rusty, we are young in many areas, we missed a lot of opportunities and made some mistakes, and we still came out with the Win. Plus Brady and company had to pull together and show what they were made of in the end. I think this win will help the team much more down the road than the lopsided game most people were expecting.

2. I tried to follow the game day thread to catch up on what I had missed. I must say, my impression is that there are a lot of people on the site who are all gloom and doom. The comments were extremely negative up to the last 2 drives, even when I saw a lot of good things. A lot of whining and crying, and not just by the trolls. A lot of doom and gloom, over what would have at worst been one early season loss. The fact is, if we had lost this game I still think we would have gotten a lot of benefit out of it. It reminded me of 2003 when we lost badly to the Bills in the opener. I think it's good that we opened with a lot of warts - I'll be much more curious to see how we look in December and January.

3. BB is going to be all over this team this week.

4. The Jets fans are going to go wild this week thinking their team is the greatest thing since sliced bread and we were lucky to eke out a win. I am expecting a totally different performance next week in New Jersey.

5. I was very pleased to escape with no major injuries. I didn't see Mayo's knee injury in the first quarter, but as he went out under his own power I'm hoping it's minor, and that he was kept out as a precaution.

6. I thought the defense did well overall tonight, especially given Mayo's absence. Guyton filled in pretty decently, though he is no Mayo. I saw a lot more swarming defense than I did last year, and much more aggressive play from the secondary. We held the Bills to 286 years total offense, and I don't think the defense would have been to blame for a loss. I was very happy with what I saw from the secondary, and Meriweather looks like a stud. Comments on the gameday thread seemed worried when the Bills got the ball back with 50 seconds, but from what I could see the defense was jacked up and wanted to show that they could rise to the occasion.

7. I thought that the penalties on Wilfork and Adalius Thomas were totally bogus. Wilfork's sack was completely clean, nothing below the waist. In the AD sack, the ref blew the whistle late and Edwards was still fighting. It's hard to blame the players for continuing to give effort under that situation, even if it wasn't the smartest play in the world. Both penalties kept scoring drives alive that should have been stopped.

8. I was a bit taken back at how well Buffalo ran the ball against our defense. While Mike Wright played a great game, I hope to see more of Ron Brace and Wilfork together in the near future.

9. Our offense put up 440+ yards total offense, but left a lot to be desired for most of the game. We had trouble finishing drives, the play calling left much to be desired, and we abandoned the running game too quickly. Brady was rusty, but looked like himself at the end. Having to pull the game out may have been the best medicine possible in terms of getting back the real Tom Brady. Watch out for the rest of the season.

10. I was surprised that Chris Baker wasn't more involved. I think next week we will see Brady use more options. If Ben Watson actually can consistently make catches like he did on the last 2 drives, then he will be a major weapon.

11. My biggest concern from what I saw was the offensive line, particularly Matt Light. Poor protection resulted in a lot of short passing plays. The run blocking continues to be poor. Maroney ran better than I've seen in a while, but didn't have much room to work with.

12. Except for Gost's FG miss, ST seemed outstanding. LoMo had a big return, the punting game was solid, McKelvin was kept in check. And the bottom line is, when the game was on the line and TB needed the ball back one more time, the ST found a way to get it back. Can't ask for much more than that.

All things considered, I'm ecstatic with this result this early in the season. I'd much rather have a physical team that can pull out clutch wins when it counts than a one-sided offensive powerhouse which bulldozes opponents 90% of the time but struggles when the going gets tough. As long as Mayo's injury isn't serious, I think we'll be in great shape in the long run.

Re: Thoughts on the Game
 

Aside from the D scaring the crap out of me, the poor play of the O-line is making the Pats offense take forever to score. Light was getting owned by whoever the Bills lined up on his side. However, he did pull it together late into the game. Light better get it together because Vollmer played well in limited duty.

Game Thoughts
 

1.) The one unit that played exceptionally well is the special teams. Other than the missed field goal, the special teams were near perfect.
2.) I an encouraged by the last quarter play, but this team still needs a lot of work. Why can't the defense play with this sense of urgency earlier in the game. At least unlike last year, they put stifling pressure on the QB when they absolutely had to.
3.) That said this defense definitely needs work.
4.) Brady and Welker are still not 100% on the same page. Missing Welker all preseason definitely hurt tonight. Luckily it didn't kill them, but if Welker completed that 3rd down conversion in the first half, this game might not have been all that close.
5.) The officiating was horrible for both teams. The Brady rule was improperly called even if Wilfork actually hit him below the knees. He was not on the ground before he lunged at him which was required for the rule. His other roughing the passer was BS also. The TO offensive pass interference was BS too.
6.) Remember it is the first game and the first game is alway the game that looks to be the biggest fluke type of game. I don't know if the the Bills were as good as they looked for most of the game or the Pats were as bad as they looked the first three quarters.
7.) Matt Light will be thankful the day he never has to line up across from Aaron Schobel ever again. Light isn't as bad as some make him out to be, but he is ten times worse than his haters makes him out to be when he faces Schobel.
8.) Liked the way Maroney ran tonight. I wish they gave him more reps.
9.) Kudos to Watson for a great game. Hopefully this is a sign for things to come.
10.) The Bills gave a far better fight than we expected. My hats off to them.
11.) Ian, I have been quite about the server issues prior to tonight, but you gotta fix this thing. I donate $18 a year to you (something I don't do for any other entertainment website I visit) and I expect to be able to come here on gamedays to post and see other people's posts. It is unacceptable that the server cannot even handle a Sunday gameday where the Pats are off. It is even worse when it is out during the game and hours after. You really need to get this fixed.

Re: Thoughts on the Game
 

I'm with you. Pulling out a gutsy win like this is a great way to get a team with a ton of new parts to gel. And being behind the eight ball led Tom Brady to find his inner...Tom Brady.

How about the lack of pass rush for 3 1/2 quarters? On the flip side, the overhauled DB corps showed me some things, Bodden in particular. And once everybody shook the rust off, the offense had that feeling to it. All in all, a good game.

But the huge question mark is Mayo. Crossing all available fingers and toes...

Re: Thoughts on the Game
 

I agree with your entire post. Meriweather looked great, IMO.

Guyton really impressed me. I don't think you can really expect great things from an OLB forced to man down the middle, but I thought he did well enough considering the circumstances.

Re: Game Thoughts
 

P.S. I hope Mayo isn't hurt too badly because we really need him. Here is what Doctor Peter King tweeted tonight about him and he was dead on about Troy Palumalu's injury:

Peter King (SI_PeterKing) on Twitter

Re: Game Thoughts
 

Wilfork hit him in his WAIST...worst call of the season so far

Re: Thoughts on the Game
 

I thought his name was Todd Light, at least according to Gruden :banned:

The D looked better later in the game, its going to take time for them to play together as a unit with all the new faces. Hopefully, like the 01 super bowl team D they play better at the end of the year.

Re: Game Thoughts
 

The knee was bent when his foot got twisted. It look more like a twist of the knee then a hyper-extension.

Re: Thoughts on the Game
 

The OL at the end of the game looked much better. I am not sure how much of that was from Brady being more focused and getting the ball out quicker or from them just getting their act together.