FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Tom Brady called out Rex Ryan and then he beat the Bills — again. ADVERTISING FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Tom Brady called out Rex Ryan and then he beat the Bills — again. After shouting the name of
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Tom Brady called out Rex Ryan and then he beat the Bills — again.
After shouting the name of the Buffalo coach as an audible, Brady led New England to a 20-13 victory over the Bills on Monday night and kept the defending Super Bowl champions on course for their second perfect regular season in nine years.
Brady completed 20 of 39 passes for 277 yards, hitting James White for a 20-yard score that was the first touchdown of the running back’s career. White added a 6-yard run in the third quarter to give New England (10-0) the lead for good.
Buffalo’s LeSean McCoy ran 20 times for 82 yards and a 27-yard touchdown and caught six passes for 41 yards to surpass 100 yards from scrimmage for the fourth straight game. The Bills (5-5) snapped a two-game winning streak and lost to Brady for the 25th time in 28 games.
The game was filled with mistakes, penalties, injuries and turnovers — including two fumbles on a single punt, a rare missed field goal by Stephen Gostkowski and an inadvertent whistle that led to one of many lengthy conferences among the officials.
And New England lost another key player: Danny Amendola, who took over as the Patriots’ No. 1 receiver because of last week’s injury to Julian Edelman, caught nine passes for 117 yards before leaving with a knee injury of his own in the third quarter.
With the wind chill temperature at 21 degrees at kickoff, both teams struggled on offense, and the Patriots even failed to score in the fourth — the first time they were shut out in a quarter since the first one of the season.
In the third quarter, both teams fumbled on the same punt.
Leodis McKelvin fielded a punt at his own 30 yard-line and made it just 2 yards before the ball was knocked out by Brandon King. New England’s Jonathan Freeny picked up the ball and rumbled 5 yards before he lost the ball and it bounced out of bounds.
The Patriots took over at the Buffalo 30 and took a 20-10 lead on Gostkowski’s 35-yard field goal. Gostkowski missed his first field goal of the season in the third quarter when he missed from 54 yards out.
Brady took a dig at Ryan in the first quarter by adding “Rex Ryan!” to his pre-snap signals. The Bills coach has been a longtime rival of the Patriots.