ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — The math says the Bills remain alive in their bid to end a 17-year playoff drought.
But reality speaks otherwise.
What happened on Sunday afternoon at New Era Field combined with the rest of Sunday’s National Football League games seemingly assures that Buffalo will again be a spectator come the postseason.
Start with what the Bills could control … or, more correctly, couldn’t.
First-year head coach Sean McDermott found out what predecessors Gregg Williams, Dick Jauron, Perry Fewell, Doug Marrone and Rex Ryan learned before him, the Patriots are tough to beat, even when they’re away from Gillette Stadium.
That message was reiterated yesterday as the Patriots claimed a workmanlike, 23-3 victory in the Bills own house before 68,499 fans, most of whom have seen this scenario all too often.
New England (10-2) virtually clinched the AFC East title, its ninth straight and 15th in the past 17 seasons, and they did it with quarterback Tom Brady, who has taken the Pats to seven Super Bowls, winning five, assuming the role of bit player.
He never threw a touchdown pass and was a modest 21-of-30 through the air with an interception and an 82.4 passer rating, nearly 30 points below his season standard.
Instead, the Pats stampeded the Bills — again — rushing for 191 yards, averaging 5 ½ per carry with Dion Lewis going for 92 yards on 15 tries and Rex Burkhard running for 78 on a dozen totes, including two TDs (1 and 14 yards).
Three Stephen Gostkowski field goals (31, 49 and 50 yards) were more than enough scoring.
Meanwhile, Buffalo dropped to 6-6 and into a morass of .500 teams hoping to fight their way into an AFC postseason slot.
Right now, both Tennessee and Jacksonville are 8-4 in the South division and one will win it while the other figures to claim a wild-card spot in a conference which has only five teams over .500. The other wild card leader is Baltimore (7-5), a game ahead of everybody else.
Besides the Bills, also at 6-6 are Kansas City, Oakland and the L.A. Chargers, though one will win the division and those four could be joined by Cincinnati if the Bengals, playing at home, beat Pittsburgh (9-2) tonight.
Under the best of circumstances, the playoffs are a heavy lift for Buffalo.
But it got heavier against the Patriots as starting quarterback Tyrod Taylor injured a knee when sacked on the game’s first play, but remained in the lineup until after Buffalo’s first possession of the final quarter, when he left the field on a cart.
His status for Sunday’s home game against the Colts is questionable, at best.
If he can’t go, the job falls to rookie fifth-round draft choice Nathan Peterman, whose previous start was the ignominious five-interception half against the Chargers in Los Angeles. The other option is career benchwarmer Joe Webb, who has four NFL starts in eight seasons with three teams.
It gets worse.
Late in the game, after intercepting a Brady pass, rookie cornerback Tre’Davious White, the Bills first-round draft choice, was victim of a brutally unsportsmanlike hit by Pats tight end Rob Gronkowski. White’s head was bashed hard into the turf and he was knocked immediately into the concussion protocol. Gronk was penalized but, inexplicably, wasn’t ejected. The likelihood, though, is that the NFL will correct that error by suspending the Buffalo native at least one game.
What’s certain is, the Bills are in danger of losing their best cover cornerback for a week, if not more.
And Buffalo safety Jordan Poyer was furious.
“Tre made a great play and Gronk was frustrated,” he said. “I understand flames are going in the heat of battle, but there’s no room in this league for that type of crap.
“I asked the referee why he wasn’t ejected … to me it was blatant. He WWE’d him (World Wrestling Entertainment). It was like he was in the wrestling arena.”
Linebacker Preston Brown maintained, “It was unnecessary … I don’t know what (the NFL) is going to do about it. It’s not the game of football … he was obviously down and out of bounds and (Gronkowski) decided to hit him late. Obviously, we hope that Tre’ is all right.”
To which safety Micah Hyde added, “Anytime someone does something like that it’s surprising. Obviously, be physical between the lines, but to play like that … just touch him he’s (already) down. You don’t need to drive your shoulder/elbow into him. That wasn’t cool. The game already had a big margin. I don’t know what was going through his head on that play.”
Indeed, it came with less than five minutes to play, well after the game was decided.
And, to that point, the Bills, who lost time of possession by eight minutes and averaged barely four yards per play, had already been proven to be offensively inept.
As McDermott noted, “To score three points, we’ve got to do a better job and put a defense under pressure … I’m not going to sugarcoat that.
“We’ve got to learn from this game … there are a lot of valuable lessons. When you go up against a team like the Patriots, they’re going to expose and exploit you when you don’t (execute and protect the football).”
But, given what happened Sunday, it might be too late for that knowledge to save the Bills season.
