Scott Pitoniak's Bills vs. Patriots Report Card

SCOTT’S REPORT CARD

COACHING: Chan Gailey’s switch to Fitzpatrick revived the offense and I thought the rookie head coach had a pretty good day calling plays, though he may have gotten a little too aggressive on the Bills final possession with three minutes remaining. Grade: B

OFFENSE: Thirty points should win you most games. The Bills ran the ball fairly well and Fitzpatrick did a nice job of distributing his passes. But the two turnovers were killers. And penalties and the continued shaky play of right tackle Cornell Green hurt. Grade: B

DEFENSE: Produced first takeaway of the season, but did a poor job against a non-descript running attack and didn’t get much pressure on Brady, who threw for three scores and engineered two 13-play drives in the second half. Grade: C-minus

SPECIAL TEAMS: Spiller’s kickoff return for touchdown and Rian Lindell’s three field goals and three extra points accounted for 18 of the Bills points. Grade: B-plus

OVERALL: The Bills went toe-to-toe with potent Patriots on the road and took advantage of their vulnerable defense. But the turnovers were fatal and the defense needs to come up with more stops, more pressure on the QB and takeaways. Another tough test awaits next week against the Jets at the Ralph. Grade: B-minus

Award-winning columnist and author Scott Pitoniak has covered the Bills since 1985 and has written five books about the team, including the recently published, Buffalo Bills Football Vault: The First 50 Seasons, which is available at any book store, the Bills team stores and Amazon.com. You can read more by Scott at www.scottpitoniak.com .