FOXBORO, MA — After watching all the sacks Drew Bledsoe endured during the first 8 games, it’s hard to believe that it would have been a simple injured thumb that finally would have sidelined him.
On New England’s third offensive play of the game Bledsoe jammed his right thumb on the helmet of linebacker Sam Rogers on the follow through. Bledsoe called a timeout and went to the sidelines to practice throwing, but had difficulty with his accuracy and left after the next series.
“My feeling was after throwing on the sidelines that I wasn’t able to throw accurately enough to be effective for our team, compounded by the fact that each time I took a snap the way I was getting hit would only aggravate it,” said Bledsoe after the game. “So I felt the best chance for us to win was to go with John [Friesz]. He’s an experienced veteran quarterback. He came in and made a couple of nice plays that barely got broken up with the exception of one play probably, played pretty well and gave us a chance to win.”
Bledsoe spent the remainder of the game wearing a cast on his right hand, and said after the game that he had his hand x-rayed but wouldn’t reveal any details.
John Friesz replaced Bledsoe on New England’s third offensive series, and had a difficult time moving the team down the field. He was even booed by the fans in the 4th quarter who were hoping to get a look at second-year quarterback Michael Bishop who was listed as the team’s emergency quarterback.
“It is not the first time I’ve been booed,” said Friesz after the game. “I understand, Michael [Bishop] is a real exciting player. I wasn’t doing a lot of good things out there.”
“Sporadically, things would happen for us. But overall, it wasn’t. It didn’t surprise me, it wasn’t something that offended me, or bothered me or affected me or anything of that nature.”
Friesz finished the afternoon 11-of-21 for 66 yards passing, but threw an ill-advised interception in the endzone while trying to force a pass into J.R. Redmond who was double covered on the play. New England went from having 1st and goal at the 1-yard line, to squandering a crucial scoring opportunity with the turnover.
“It is inexcusable,” said Friesz on the interception. “It is a situation that’s partly why I’m supposed to be here. I’m a veteran, I’m supposed to know better and I screwed up. Throw it out of the back of the end zone and go back and go on to the next play.”
New England went into the locker room at halftime down 10-3, but knotted the game at 10-10 after a 17-yard pass to Troy Brown set up 1st-and-goal at the Buffalo 1-yard line. J.R. Redmond finally ran it in on 4th down and the Patriots found themselves back in the game with 9:00 remaining in the contest.
The Patriots finally took a 13-10 lead following Adam Vinatieri’s 43-yard field goal with 2:03 left in the game, but New England still had to stop Bills quarterback Doug Flutie who had been held in check throughout most of the game.
Flutie went right to work on that final drive, and drove the Bills 46-yards on 10 plays which set up Bills kicker Steve Christie’s 48-yard field goal which barely squeaked over the crossbar, and sent the game into overtime.
New England elected to take the ball in overtime instead of the wind, and were unable to get a first down on their possession. They were forced to punt the ball away to Buffalo, and the Bills began their drive on their own 35-yard line.
Following a 22-yard pass interference call against Patriots cornerback Ty Law that moved the ball to New England’s 43-yard line, Flutie then completed a 6-yard pass to tight end Jay Riemersma, running back Shawn Bryson ran for 5 and 15 yards, and Antowain Smith also rushed for 4 yards.
Steve Christie then came onto the field and kicked a 32-yard field goal which was the game winner, his second in two weeks.
“Obviously this is a disappointing outcome for us this afternoon,” said Belichick. “Defensively we had a couple of breakdowns at the wrong time, a couple of plays that we should have played a lot better considering the amount of time we spent preparing for them.”
“But in the heat of the game when the fur flies we just didn’t play as well as we need to play it.”
The fur has flown all right, and with seven losses along with the loss of Bledsoe, so may have New England’s hopes of salvaging their season.
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Ian Logue is a Seacoast native and owner and senior writer for PatsFans.com, an independent media site covering the New England Patriots and has been running this site in one form or another since 1997.
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