After two losses on the road, the Patriots return home to defeat the Buffalo Bills, 24-12, claiming their NFL record-setting 10th straight postseason berth and division title. Houston's late-second loss to Philadelphia gives New England the edge in clinching a first-round playoff bye,
FOXBORO – They had been packed away in boxes for weeks, traveling with them on trips to Miami and Pittsburgh.
Finally, on Sunday, two days before Christmas, the Patriots unwrapped their AFC East Division championship hats and T-shirts.
After road losses at Hard Rock Stadium and Heinz Field, the Patriots returned home to Gillette Stadium to wrap up their 10th straight postseason berth and 10th consecutive division title (both NFL records).
And so, following next Sunday’s regular-season finale at Gillette, they’ll be on to the playoffs.
Keeping the Bills out of the end zone until Josh Allen found wide receiver Zay Jones with a meaningless 31-yard touchdown pass with 1:08 to play in the game, the Patriots overcame a mistake-filled performance by their offense to extend their season into January, topping Buffalo, 24-12.
“I think they’re all pretty tough and I think we just have grinded it out,” said quarterback Tom Brady, who, on a day when the ground game churned out 273 yards and two touchdowns on 47 carries, threw for just 126, was intercepted twice and struggled to post a passer rating of 48.3. “I think part of playing in the NFL is over the course of 16 weeks you see how things shake out, not after September or October, November. It’s really after the end of December, and we’ve still got one hugely important game left and we need to finish strong.”
The day came complete with a Christmas bonus for the Patriots: Philadelphia’s 32-30 victory over Houston, a game in which Nick Foles, of all people, drove the Eagles to a last-second, game-winning score, moved the Pats back into the conference’s second seed (both teams are now 10-5, but New England holds the tiebreaker advantage by virtue of its 27-20 win over the Texans in this year’s opener) heading into the last weekend of the regular season. The Patriots will host the New York Jets this Sunday in Foxboro, while the Texans will entertain the Jacksonville Jaguars in Houston.
While cheers broke out in the Patriots locker room as Jake Elliott’s 35-yard field goal lifted the Eagles to the win (who says these guys don’t watch the scoreboard?), defensive end Trey Flowers was quick to say: “It is what it is. Obviously, we’ve still got to take care of business, take care of the Jets next week, so we’re not looking too far ahead.”
After going three-and-out in less than a minute the first time they touched the ball (all passes from Brady to Julian Edelman; two incompletions around a 7-yard gain), the Patriots went the ground-and-pound route to put together a six-play, 55-yard touchdown drive on their second possession, Sony Michel (18 carries for 116 yards and a touchdown) rushing five times for 43 yards, including 4 yards for the touchdown, and wide receiver Cordarrelle Patterson (66 yards on just four carries and one catch for 3 yards before he left the game with a knee injury) scooting 12 yards on a jet sweep.
A five-play, 56-yard scoring drive in the second quarter made it 14-0, James White (eight carries for 41 yards and a touchdown) accounting for nearly half the real estate on a 27-yard TD jaunt off left tackle on third-and-two.
Only an interception by Buffalo linebacker Lorenzo Alexander at the Bills 21 later that quarter (on a play on which running back Rex Burkhead appeared to run the wrong route) kept things from getting completely out of hand in the first half.
Burkhead, who did gain 39 yards on 13 carries and caught four passes for 40 yards, was solely to blame for a turnover in the first quarter, coughing the ball up on a hit by Bills linebacker Corey Thompson, safety Micah Hyde returning it 9 yards to the Patriots 40, but Stephen Hauschka’s 43-yard field-goal attempt in the waning seconds of the first quarter hit the crossbar and dropped to the turf.
In the true spirit of the giving season, the Patriots turned the ball over for the third time on the first offensive play of the third quarter, a pass through the hands of tight end Rob Gronkowski (no catches in three targets) that Hyde gladly accepted at the New England 24, but the best the Bills could do from that was a 35-yard field goal by Hauschka.
A 41-yard field goal by Hauschka on a possession that actually required the Bills to move the chains (they picked up two first downs and went 36 yards) to score made it 14-6 with 10:06 to play in the third quarter.
Overcoming yet another self-inflicted wound (a holding call on Gronkowski that put them in a first-and-19 situation), the Patriots answered by driving 88 yards in 10 plays. A 25-yard catch and run by Burkhead got the Patriots out of that first-and-19 dilemma and a 32-yard catch and run by Edelman got them in the end zone for a 21-6 lead they took into the fourth quarter.
A 25-yard punt return by Edelman put the Patriots in Buffalo territory in that fourth quarter and led to a 24-yard chip shot of a field goal by Stephen Gostkowski that put the game away, 24-6, with 7:44 to play.
The day was a struggle at times, but, ultimately, the job got done and another division title was won.
“Obviously, it was still sloppy out there today for us and we know we’ve got to be better,” said White. “We still have a lot to improve on, so I think that’s enough motivation for us in itself.”