Tom Brady struggled with the pressure, but wasn't terrible
Some might point to Brady's brutal statline of 20/39, 277 yards, 1 touchdown, and 1 interception and say that he had a bad day. While he wasn't as productive as he's been in the past, the majority of his incompletions were throwaways due to the Bills ridiculous pass pressure. His interception was an absolutely awful idea and throw, but other than that he was making the smart decision to get rid of the ball to avoid the sack.
The offensive line was absolutely brutal
What player had a good day? Maybe Bryan Stork and Shaq Mason, but that's it upon preliminary review. Marcus Cannon and Sebastian Vollmer weren't great at tackle and Cameron Fleming was just as bad. Josh Kline made multiple mistakes and David Andrews was benched for the first time this season. Maybe it's rust, but the line needs to get its head together.
James White and LeGarrette Blount did their jobs against a stingy Bills defense
The two running backs combined for 107 yards, 2 touchdowns on 21 touches. It wasn't always pretty, but they managed to offer an idea of a rushing attack to prevent the Bills from just keying in on Brady as a passer every single snap. White definitely deserves more time in the offense moving forward.
There are no more wide receivers
Julian Edelman is out. Keshawn Martin was inactive. Aaron Dobson had to be carted off the field. Danny Amendola was out with a knee injury. Brandon LaFell was behind Dobson in the depth chart for the first quarter of the game. Chris Harper is technically a receiver (#HarperHype). But this unit is absolutely decimated and the Patriots have to find a way to fix this quickly because the Bills did a great job of taking Rob Gronkowski out of the equation (2 catches for 37 yards on 7 targets).
The defensive line proved its worth and contained Tyrod Taylor
The Bills collected just 91 yards (3.1 yards per carry) on the ground and a lot was due to the defensive line's ability to contain Buffalo's mobile quarterback. Taylor picked up 1 yard on four carries and he was beaten up at the end of the game. LeSean McCoy picked up a respectable 81 yards and a touchdown on 20 carries, but he had a 27 yard run and was consistently stopped at the line of scrimmage.
Jonathan Freeny and Jerod Mayo did nothing of note in the best of ways
The two linebackers combined to replace Jamie Collins and they actually did a pretty good job against the run. Mayo looks like he's back to his 2013 level, which is a great sign moving forward. More importantly, neither player was really picked on by the Bills and now the Patriots will have Collins back next week.
Malcolm Butler is a shutdown corner
Logan Ryan deserves a ton of credit for his performance this season, but Butler has been outperforming Darrelle Revis week-in and week-out and that's not up for debate. Butler completely shut down Sammy Watkins and the Bills had to rely on slot receiver Chris Hogan to produce against safety Patrick Chung to offer any semblance of a passing game.
The Patriots are now the NFL's #1 scoring defense
New England has allowed 18.2 points per game this year. The Denver Broncos are second with 18.3 points allowed per game. Next week should be fun.
Officials need to go away
They were absolutely horrible, whether it was the phantom whistle with Danny Amendola, or even just declaring a player inbounds, the refs couldn't do their job. The game was WAY too long.