High-strung Bills deflate
Pats, miscues prove too much
ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Tom Brady usually doesn’t need any help in beating the Buffalo Bills, but the Patriots got some anyway yesterday.
The Bills took an astounding 14 penalties, costing them 140 yards in field position, in the Patriots’ 40-32 victory at Ralph Wilson Stadium.
You name it, and the Bills were called for it: pre-snap penalties, personal fouls, holding. If it was illegal, there was a good chance the Buffalo did it.
“People were too emotional, getting extra, silly fouls,” linebacker Preston Brown said. “The personal fouls, all that extra was ... were just killing drives. That’s stuff we’ve got to cut out. We’ve got to control our emotions and be professionals.”
Special teams play was especially bad. In the first quarter alone, Buffalo was whistled for five penalties, four of which were accepted. On an onside-kick attempt in the fourth quarter, the Bills committed three separate penalties.
“We were kind of too emotional out there,” cornerback Stephon Gilmore said. “We were just too rowdy, I felt like, instead of just calming down and playing. I felt like if we would have done that, the whole game would have been different.”
Emotions were understandably high for a Bills team that came into the game feeling good about themselves after a seasonopening win against the Indianapolis Colts. During the week, several players openly talked about their dislike of the Patriots.
But after Brady carved up the Buffalo secondary for 466 passing yards — the most ever allowed by the Bills — a defense with a stated goal of finishing No. 1 in the league was left licking its wounds.
“It showed a reality check, really,” Brown said. “It showed we’re not the best. I mean, we just act like we are, but we aren’t right now. We’ve got a lot to work on.”
Asked if the bulletinboard material the Bills gave the Patriots was a factor in the loss, Brown said, “I mean, guys say what they want. They’ve got a right to an opinion so if they want to talk, they can talk, but we’ve got to go out there and back it up. . . . We didn’t do that today.”
Bills coach Rex Ryan even got into the act, drawing an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty in the third quarter that was announced as going against the “Buffalo bench.”
“That was mine,” Ryan said. “The guy’s got rabbit ears. I don’t know what to tell you.”
The Bills have been called for 25 penalties in the first two weeks.
“Sometimes, you know, it’s an emot iona l game, you should play with emotion,” Ryan said. “But sometimes you let your emotions get the better of you and it went to our detriment. It starts with me. I obviously have to control my emotions a little better, regardless of how bad things were going.”
While the Bills totaled 14 penalties, the Patriots also reached double digits at 11. The three-penalty differential didn’t sit right with Ryan.
“I guess the refs thought (the crowd) came to see them today,” Ryan said.
While Ryan was busy complaining in his press conference, the Bills leaders were embarrassed about their performance.
“There’s a difference between coming out ready to go, fired up, ready to play and coming out and being totally without poise, without focus, and a lot of stupid, idiotic stuff,” defensive tackle Kyle Williams said. “That plays right in their hands. If you have no poise, no focus, you get caught up in all the (expletive), that’s what they do. We did that.”