Bills 34 Patriots 31

-Coast

With 6:01 remaining in the 2nd quarter, Rob Gronkowski, the Buffalo native, hauled in a 26 yard touchdown pass from Tom Brady to put the Patriots up 21-0. The Patriots offense was scoring with relative ease. Three touchdowns in 5 possessions. The Bills offense on the other hand had 4 drives, 2 of which resulted in punts and 2 of which resulted in interceptions.

In any of the past 11 years, a Bills team in this situation would have crumbled to the Patriots. I was envisioning a 49-0 embarrassment. I mean, what else was there to expect? Since the Bills beat the Patriots 31-0 8 years ago, the Bills have faced Tom Brady at home 6 times before yesterday. In those games, the Bills were outscored by an incredible margin...201-53. This is an average of 33.5 - 8.3 per game. That is astounding if you think about it. In our own stadium, we have been dominated by one team by an average of over 25 points per game during a 6 year stretch.

I will admit, I gave up hope. I was done with Chan Gailey. I thought his decision to defer the opening kickoff was comical and the decision to go for it on 4th and 14 desperate. The Bills young team wasn't ready for this type of stage. Donald Jones had a dropped pass that led to an interception. Aaron Williams was getting abused. The Bills veteran cast off safeties George Wilson and Bryan Scott were out of their league and had no prayer of covering Gronkowski or Welker.

Beginning with the Bills next possession, the momentum started to slowly shift. The Bills kept any slight hope alive when Ryan Fitzpatrick found Stevie Johnson to cut the lead to 21-7. The momentum really swung on New England's next possession. Brady and company were marching down for another score...possibly to make it 28-7. Instead, Brady threw a horrible pass to Danny Woodhead that was intercepted by Bryan Scott. The Bills turned this into a field goal and instead of 28-7 at halftime it was 21-10.

Tom Brady threw 4 interceptions on the day. He had 4 in 2010. The Bills intercepted Brady 4 times on 45 attempts yesterday...he threw the same amount last year in 492 attempts. Truly unbelievable.

Leodis McKelvin...the same player who was torched last week by the Raiders, made 2 huge plays in the game. He intercepted Brady in the 3rd quarter to set up the Bills for a touchdown to make the score 21-17. He then stopped Woodhead cold on a 3rd down to force a field goal to keep it a 7 point game.

Say what you will about George Wilson, but his interception on Brady in the 4th quarter when they were driving to once again take a 2 score lead was an incredible play. The Bills intercepted Brady 2 times deep in scoring territory...the Bills defense gave up tons of yards, but made HUGE plays when it mattered.

I can't say enough about Ryan Fitzpatrick. He should have had a contract in his locker yesterday at 4:23 PM. The guy deserves it. He is obviously a great leader. His teammates love him. He is smart and has incredible poise. Yeah, he looked calm and cool last week against Oakland in the 4th quarter, but this is New England for God sake. 15 straight losses. 20 out of 21. 25 point average home margin of defeat. 21-0 deficit in the 2nd quarter. None of this mattered. Fitzpatrick led the team back...and it was like he totally expected to. There was no sense of panic from our offense. 27-40, 369 yards, 2 touchdowns. Fitz has 9 TDs through 3 games...and most importantly he has led back to back 18 plus point comebacks over two good football teams. No team has made back to back comebacks of such a margin in over 60 years. The Raiders aren't slouches. They took it to the Jets yesterday. Darren McFadden ran for over 170 yards against the Jets...he ran for 71 against the Bills.

I will eat my words about Fred Jackson. I love this guy. I have always thought he was a mediocre player with very limited talent and thought that it was ridiculous how much people loved him. I was so wrong on this. Fred Jackson is 30 years old and probably runs a 4.6 40 yard dash if that. This guy has freaking heart though. He leaves it all on the field, every single game and that is contagious. He is another great leader. For the first time in literally decades, the Bills have legitimate leadership and they have a cohesive team that wants to go out there and battle and win for each other. They also love where they are playing, which makes it even better. The 'great' players we have had in the past couldn't wait to get out of here. I heard Stevie Johnson wore a Sabres hat to the game yesterday. Marshawn Lynch used to wear Raiders hats.

Drayton Florence's pick 6 was the highlight of an incredible afternoon. I nearly tackled my Dad sitting next to me. It was complete euphoria which slowly turned into shock and disbelief. No one knew how to react. We sat there for 15 minutes after the game ended just trying to figure out if what happened actually happened. No one left the stadium early. Everyone was standing the entire 2nd half. I was 7 when I was at Rich Stadium for the Bills vs. Oilers 32 point comeback game. Was this as good as that game? Probably not, but it's the best home win since. The Bills have won 3 home playoff games since then, but given the past decade, this win was bigger. The Bills might have turned the corner. They might have found their franchise quarterback. They might have found a head coach. Right now, it is fun to legitimately have a chance at playing important home games in December...the Bills do have 3 of them.