Brady, Pats beat Bills, add wrinkle
ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. So how did they do it, exactly?
It took until Tom Brady’s fourth game this season for the New England Patriots quarterback to throw a touchdown pass to a wide receiver. In Sunday afternoon’s 41-25 crushing of the Buffalo Bills, he didn’t just do it once. He did it three times, with each one going to a different player.
Did they have to lobby? Did they plead? Did they make their case that they — not tight ends Rob Gronkowski and Martellus Bennett or running back James White — deserved the touchdowns instead?
After the game, the receivers didn’t bite when asked, so surely outspoken Bennett would reveal how to win Brady’s attention.
“You just work,” Bennett told USA TODAY Sports as he left the locker room. “He never locks in on one guy. Every single player has a chance to get the ball. I think that’s one of the biggest things, just trying to make plays for Tom.
“Every week is different. The thing about our guys is we don’t care who scores. Tom sure doesn’t care who scores. He’s going to hit the open man. Everyone is fighting to score.”
Said Brady, “I’m just trying to find open guys.” So, back to the question. Do players need to lobby Brady? Do they need to get in his ear to get in the end zone?
“Nah,” Bennett said. “We just all work to get open first. If
someone else gets it in, it’ll be like, ‘Damn, Gronk got open first.’ It’s really fun, ’cause whoever gets open is who he’s going to hit.”
That could be bad news for the rest of the league. Because if it was hard enough to cover the Patriots tight end tandem of Gronkowski and Bennett, Sunday’s three scores to Julian Edelman, Danny Amendola and Chris Hogan reinforce that New England’s wide receivers can be productive when needed.
“They’re not tricking you at all,” Bills safety Corey Graham said. “When you watch the film, you get exactly what you see on the film. You know what you’re going to get. They’re not trying to trick you. (Brady) just looks for matchups, and he pretty much says, ‘ My guys are better than yours.’ ”
Sunday, Brady’s guys were the receivers.
New England converted nine of 13 attempts on third downs against the Bills.
When targeting receivers on third downs, Brady completed all six passes he attempted to the unit for 108 yards. Two of them resulted in touchdowns, the others in first downs.
Overall, Brady completed 22 of 33 passes against the Bills for 315 yards and four touchdowns.
Brady’s 12 touchdown passes this season have gone to six different targets.
The newest Brady target that many might not know much about is Hogan, who played the last four seasons for the Bills and has emerged as New England’s top deep threat.
Hogan caught all four of his targets for 91 yards, including a 53-yard touchdown in which he sprinted past Bills cornerback Stephon Gilmore in the first quarter and sunk the Bills into a 14-3 hole.
“It was a bomb,” Gronkowski said. “I was in the middle of the field, so the ball got thrown over my head, and I was watching it like, ‘ Whoa.’ It looked like a bird just going — and then I saw Hogan. I looked at Hogan, and I was like, ‘ Oh, man, he’s got his man beat.’ ”
The Patriots (7-1) enter their bye week in command of the AFC East — and potentially the conference.
The team’s defense has been good enough to prevent opposing offenses from keeping pace with New England’s. Gronkowski and Bennett pose weekly mismatches for opponents. And with the Patriots trio of wideouts all getting open, New England’s offense could continue to roll.
“I feel like we’re right where we need to be,” Amendola said. “We’re right where we should be. Seven games isn’t enough. We’ve got to win a lot more, so we’re going to go back to work and try to prepare and get ready.”