4:32 PM, Sep. 25, 2011
ORCHARD PARK — Guess what? The Buffalo Bills are for real.
Despite spotting Tom Brady and the New England Patriots a 21-0 lead in the first 24 minutes, the Bills rallied for a hard-to-believe 34-31 victory in front of 68,174 fans this afternoon at Ralph Wilson Stadium.
Rian Lindell’s 28-yard field goal with :02 seconds to play broke the tie.
Not only did the Bills pull the shocker, they made Brady, the All-World quarterback, look ordinary by intercepting him four times. He threw four interceptions in all of 2010, and had thrown only one in the first two games this season.
And so ends Buffalo’s 15-game losing streak to New England. The Bills, headed to Cincinnati next Sunday, improved to 3-0 while the Patriots fell to 2-1.
The Bills tied the score, 24-24, on a Fred Jackson 1-yard run with 10:36 to play, then took their first lead, 31-24, when cornerback Drayton Florence intercepted a deflected Brady pass and returned it 27 yards untouched to the end zone 15 seconds later.
The Patriots came right back to score as Brady hit Wes Welker with a 6-yard TD pass. Welker caught 16 passes for 217 yards — in a loss.
That’s because the Bills marched 70 yards in 8 plays to set up the winning field goal. Quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick passed to running back Fred Jackson at the 30 and he sprinted down to the 1, a 38-yard play.
With just 1:43 remaining, and because New England had just one timeout left, the Bills then played stall ball until just :03 remained. Lindell then kicked the field goal.
A week ago the Bills trailed 21-3 at halftime but came back to defeat the Oakland Raiders 38-35.
The Bills won the coin toss but deferred their choice to the second half. Apparently they were telling Brady to show them what he’s got.
He did. He needed nine plays, and 5:15 of clock time, to direct the Patriots to the end zone. Welker scored on a 14-yard pass. Cornerback Drayton Florence slipped, leaving the Pats’ wide receiver alone in the left flat.
The Patriots got the ball right back when, on Buffalo’s second offensive play, a Ryan Fitzpatrick pass skipped off the hands of Donald Jones and was intercepted by Kyle Arrington.
Starting at the Bills’ 35, Brady needed six plays to reach the end zone. He threw a 1-yard touchdown pass to tight end Rob Gronkowski in the back of the end zone.
Just 8:58 into the game, the Patriots led 14-0.
The lead became 21-0 with 6:01 left in the second quarter. The Pats drove 65 yards in just five plays, the last 26 covered by a pass from Brady to Gronkowski. Cornerback Aaron Williams attempted to provide coverage, but Gronkowski ran right past him.
Fitzpatrick threw a strike to Stevie Johnson in the right corner of the end zone, capping a 91-yard drive 1:56 before halftime, to pull the Bills within 21-7.
Interceptions of Brady passes on back-to-back possessions — by Bryan Scott late in the first half and by Leodis
McKelvin early in the third quarter — led to 10 points for the Bills.
Rian Lindell kicked a 42-yard field goal just before the half, then McKelvin’s interception set up a 39-yard Bills TD drive, with Fitzpatrick hitting a wide-open Scott Chandler for the final 3 yards.
The Bills defense allowed New England to drive from its 14 to the Buffalo 5, but the drive stalled and the Patriots settled for a 22-yard field goal by Stephen Gostkowkski.
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