Orchard Park, NY ? Tom Brady’s arm and Richard Seymour’s legs. You can’t accuse the New England Patriots of running out of winning combinations.
The quarterback and the defensive end teamed up to secure the Patriots’ record-tying 18th straight victory, 31-17 over the Buffalo Bills on Sunday.
Brady’s performance was no surprise, putting New England ahead for good, with a 2-yard touchdown pass to Daniel Graham four minutes into the fourth quarter that broke a 17-17 tie. It marked the 16th time that Brady has led the Patriots to victory in the final 15 minutes or overtime.
Seymour’s effort was much more breath-taking _ or, perhaps, breath-exerting.
With the Bills threatening to tie the game, the 310-pound lineman snapped up a fumble by Drew Bledsoe forced by Tedy Bruschi and ran it back 68 yards to seal the victory with 2:44 remaining.
“A lot of sucking air,” Seymour said, laughing. “I just kept running.”
And so appear to be the Patriots, who have not lost in 53 weeks, going back to a 20-17 defeat at Washington on Sept. 28, 2003.
In between, they’ve won 15 consecutive regular-season games and three in the playoffs, including last February’s Super Bowl victory over Carolina.
The Patriots tied a record held by four other NFL teams _ Chicago did it twice _ and also by the 1947-48 AAFC Cleveland Browns. They’re the first to win 18 straight since Denver in 1997-98.
New England gets an opportunity to break the record by hosting Miami next weekend.
As impressive as it seems, the Patriots continue to downplay the streak, calling it meaningless.
“We don’t really think about that,” Seymour said. “I know we need to play better than we played today. It’s not going to be good enough coming down the stretch.”
The Patriots’ performance was good enough to beat a bumbling Bills team that’s lost three straight to open this season, lacks confidence and continues to find ways to lose.
The Bills _ coming off consecutive 13-10 losses to Jacksonville and Oakland _ lost while squandering their best offensive performance of the season.
Bledsoe finished 18-of-30 for 247 yards, including a 41-yard touchdown to Eric Moulds. And the Bills also got a strong special teams effort as Terrence McGee ran back a kickoff 98 yards for a touchdown.
None of that seemed to matter for a team that could be described as the anti-Patriots, a group that can’t seem to win in the clutch and has managed just 17 victories since the start of the 2001 season.
Any chance of a Buffalo victory ended with back-to-back plays on the Bills’ last significant drive.
On third-and-2 from the Patriots 16, running back Travis Henry was untouched when he fell face-first at the line of scrimmage for a 1-yard loss.
On fourth-down, the Bills called for Bledsoe to run a naked bootleg. But the play was blown up before it had a chance to even develop when Bruschi got to Bledsoe and forced the fumble.
“Same old thing the last three games,” Bills coach Mike Mularkey said. “I’m not trying to make excuses, it’s unacceptable. I’ll take responsibility for it. It’s not getting done.”
Bledsoe seemed at a loss.
“I was sitting at my locker for 10 minutes trying to figure it out and in the shower trying to figure it out … `What can I do to make a change?'” Bledsoe said. “We’re making mistakes at the wrong time and especially against the defending world champs, you can’t make mistakes like that.”
Brady finished 17-of-30 for 298 yards, including a 30-yard touchdown pass to David Patten. Corey Dillon had 79 yards rushing, including a 15-yard touchdown.
Brady might not make much of the streak, but the winning has had a favorable impact on the team’s confidence.
“The more you’re in those situations, the more confident you become. And the more you say, `Gosh, we’re down but we can come back,'” Brady said. “We’ve done this before. … I love playing on this team, and I love playing with the group of guys that I’ve got.”
Notes: The Patriots have won eight straight on the road, and made up for last year’s season-opening 31-0 loss at Buffalo. … Patriots receiver Troy Brown did not return after hurting his arm in the first quarter. … Adam Vinatieri had a 42-yard field goal for New England, and Rian Lindell hit a 33-yarder for Buffalo. … The Bills lost CB Troy Vincent (knee), C Trey Teague (knee) and OT Jonas Jennings (head).
