In their 40-32 dismantling of the Buffalo Bills on Sunday, the New England Patriots outmanned and out-schemed a Bills pass defense that, just a week prior, shut down Andrew Luck and the Indianapolis Colts. Tom Brady threw for 466 yards and three touchdowns - he could have had significantly more, too, were it not for a handful of dropped passes and a couple of narrowly-missed deep shots - with the yardage total setting a record for most in a single game against the Bills, and coming in as the second-highest single-game output in Brady's career.
The Patriots did not have to do anything new or interesting to beat what Rex Ryan threw at them. When the Bills played zone coverages, the Patriots - led by the best tight end in the NFL, Rob Gronkowski - made plays up the seam, as they usually do. Gronkowski finished the game with seven receptions for 113 yards and a touchdown. Buffalo mostly played man, however, and the Patriots exploited that with a handful of pick plays and route combinations that would clear a deep defender and leave an underneath receiver wide open.
The end result was that shifty receivers Julian Edelman (11 receptions, 97 yards, two touchdowns) and back Dion Lewis (six receptions, 98 yards) had field days, while back-end receiving options like Aaron Dobson (seven receptions, 87 yards) put up gaudy numbers, as well. If you were a Pats quarterback or skill player, you were going to make a big play yesterday, basically.
After the game, Bills defenders spoke to issues communicating that left Pats receivers open all day. What they were less inclined to admit was that they simply played poorly. We saw a lot of both, and Brady's three scoring tosses - broken down in the gallery above - bear that out. Here's to hoping that the Bills can figure a few things out on the back end before they take on Ryan Tannehill and the Miami Dolphins in Week 3.