FOXBOROUGH - Safety Brandon Meriweather was thinking what a national television audience watching “Monday Night Football’’ and the 68,756 fans inside Gillette Stadium were thinking most of the night: When are the Patriots going to start playing?
It took nearly four quarters for the Patriots and Tom Brady to put it together last night, but the result was a memorable 25-24 win over the Buffalo Bills, who ended up being foiled and being the perfect foils in Brady’s triumphant return.
Brady left no doubt about his comeback from torn anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments in his left knee by leading a fourth-quarter comeback with a pair of touchdown passes to tight end Benjamin Watson that allowed the Patriots to open the season with a win and, at least for one night, overcome what could be the loss of middle linebacker Jerod Mayo.
Brady, who tied his career-high with 39 completions (in 53 attempts), threw for for 378 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception. He hit Watson with a 16-yard touchdown pass with 50 seconds to complete a comeback from an 11-point fourth-quarter deficit and send the Patriots to their franchise-record 12th straight victory over the Bills.
“Well, that was an exciting night,’’ said Patriots coach Bill Belichick. “You know it’s a great effort by our team. I’m really proud of the players, not that we played our best, but we hung in there and we kept playing down by 11 with four or five minutes to go in the game. We came back and made the plays we had to make to win. We certainly don’t want to put ourselves in that position very often.’’
What was supposed to be a celebration of Brady’s return after he injured his left knee in last year’s opener (Sept. 7, 2008) took a sobering turn for the Patriots early, when they lost Mayo, the quarterback of their defense, just six defensive snaps into the game.
Mayo was injured on a 16-yard run by Buffalo running back Fred Jackson that moved the ball to the Patriots’ 33. He walked off the field under his own power. The training staff examined his right knee on the bench. Brady, who may have been feeling some deja vu, watched as Mayo was attended to. Mayo never returned. The Bills scored their first touchdown three plays after he was hurt.
“Jerod is a great player. He is hard to replace,’’ said Meriweather. “I don’t know what’s going on. I haven’t went in there to check on him. Just to show that we have depth to do what we did shows a lot about our football team.’’
For a while it looked as if the Patriots would lose Mayo and the game.
