The performance marked the seventh time in nine games this season the Patriots have won the time-of-possession battle, which reflects, in part, how the team's offense has morphed into something considerably different from what it was in 2007.
Gone is the record-setting, big-play attack that often would strike in an instant.
In its place is an offense content to either nickel-and-dime opponents, or run through them, causing what can be an uncomfortable death.
Just ask members of the Bills defense - who had the life sucked out of them during the Patriots' impressive 19-play scoring drive in the fourth quarter - what it felt like to be on the field for 22 minutes, 44 seconds of the 30-minute second half.
"I was definitely tired out there," Buffalo cornerback Terrence McGee said. "Long drives take a lot out of you."
The Patriots had drives of 11, 13, and 19 plays, with coach Bill Belichick calling the final 19-play march - culminating in a 1-yard touchdown run by BenJarvus Green-Ellis - "the game" because it lasted 9:08 and increased a 13-3 lead to 20-3.
"That last drive was awesome," Belichick said. "We took a lot of time off the clock, and got 7 points. It was good time management and real good execution when we needed it, especially in the second half."
The 19-play drive also had Belichick turning back the clock - to the team's 20-3 AFC Divisional-round playoff win over the Colts on Jan. 16, 2005.
That was a game in which the Patriots killed the clock in a similar fashion on a 94-yard fourth-quarter drive that lasted 7:24.
Think Belichick is into the details? He even noted that drive in '05 was to the same non-lighthouse side of the stadium.
Yesterday, the Bills had held a slight time-of-possession edge at the half (15:04-14:56), but the Patriots simply wrestled control from them, mostly with a hard-charging, take-no-prisoners running game that continues to be undermanned with just three healthy backs - Green-Ellis, Kevin Faulk, and Heath Evans.
