The Patriots employed an offensive game plan unheard of in the modern NFL to win on a windy night in Buffalo, but afterward Bill Belichick downplayed how bad the wind was.
Belichick acknowledged that the Patriots were playing in “conditions that were somewhat challenging,” but he said the Patriots have seen worse in Buffalo, specifically in the final game of the 2008 season.
“That was a lot worse,” Belichick said of the wind his team played in in Buffalo 13 years ago. “Way, way worse.”
In the 2008 game, the Patriots ran the ball 47 times and passed eight times as they won 13-0. On Monday night, the Patriots ran the ball 46 times and passed three times as they won 14-10.
“There was a lot of situational football that I thought for the most part we handled well,” Belichick said of Monday night’s game.
Still, Belichick noted that Bills quarterback Josh Allen completed 15 of 30 passes for 145 yards, with one touchdown and no interceptions, so it wasn’t like passing the ball was impossible.
“Josh did a good job throwing the ball out there,” Belichick said. “It was tough conditions and he slung it in there pretty good.”
The conditions made the game a fascinating chess match in which Belichick and Bills coach Sean McDermott took very different approaches. In the end, Belichick won the chess match, as he so often has in his coaching career.