The New England Patriots held a 24-10 lead coming out of the half and were set to receive the kick off in the second half.
WR Danny Amendola returned that kick off 73 yards. QB Tom Brady hit TE Martellus Bennett for 12 yards. Brady then hit WR Julian Edelman for a 12-yard touchdown to take a 31-10 lead. People started to go home after this point.
The rest of the second half wasn’t worth much to anyone else involved. Bills QB Tyrod Taylor scored on a 26-yard run on 4th and 3 to close the score to 31-17, but officials somehow missed this hands to the face call on the Bills center.
Little bit of holding on Jamie Collins' facemask here. pic.twitter.com/f3Jb2esgsq
— Rich Hill (@PP_Rich_Hill) October 30, 2016
It didn’t matter. The Patriots responded with a 5-minute touchdown drive to take back a three-score lead and a 38-17 score. The highlight of this drive was when a Bills fan threw, ahem, a NSFW sex toy on the field.
The Patriots played super soft zone after this and the Bills walked down to the red zone, but failed to convert a 4th down attempt from the Patriots 10 yard line.
LT Nate Solder gave up his third sack of the day at the start of the 4th quarter as many wondered why Brady was still on the field. Brady was taking deep shots early in the 4th, TE Rob Gronkowski was picking up chunks of yardage, and RB LeGarrett Blount wasn’t making it back to the line of scrimmage as DT Kyle Williams was manhandling LG Joe Thuney on the regular.
Kyle Williams just dominates Joe Thuney here. pic.twitter.com/cYp25Di6Fd
— Rich Hill (@PP_Rich_Hill) October 30, 2016
Patriots back-up QB Jimmy Garoppolo took over with 4:29 left in the game. Bills back-up QB E.J. Manuel came in with 2:26 left in the game. The Bills scored a garbage time touchdown. S Jordan Richards was needlessly hurt with 30 seconds left in the game. The officials were atrocious, throwing dozens of flags, calling bad fouls, missing obvious ones.
The Patriots defeated the Bills 41-25.
Brady finished the day 22 of 33 (66.7%) for 315 yards, 4 touchdowns, and 0 interceptions for a rating of 137.0. Gronkowski finished with 5 catches for 109 yards and a touchdown. WR Chris Hogan had 4 catches for 91 yards and a touchdown. K Stephen Gostkowski hit 2 field goals and 5 extra points.
The Patriots move to 7-1 and have a bye week. The Bills fall to 4-4 and are on the outside of the playoff picture.