While the Patriots have been saying for years that they "ignore the noise," last week, as they prepared for the Bills, they at least acknowledged the grumblings coming out of Buffalo.
After shoving rookie quarterback Jacoby Brissett and starting a quick scuffle during pregame warmups before their Week 4 contest at Gillette Stadium, Bills players last week said they would do the same thing if Tom Brady were to run too close to their drills. Not only were the Patriots miffed about what happened back then, but they clearly heard that the Bills were looking to follow up this weekend at New Era Field.
"I think everybody remembers what happened," Brady told WEEI's Kirk and Callahan Show. "I think there was a lot of talk coming out of Buffalo about retaliation, doing the same thing and so forth. We were ready to go. I mean, ultimately those things make zero difference on the outcome of the game. You’ve got to be focused and worried about the things that are going to allow you to score points and stop the other team from scoring points, not pregame warmups or the music.
"There's a lot of things that really have no bearing on the outcome of the game and if you spend 50 percent of your attention on things like that it just takes away from your preparation and your focus on what you need to do. It thought we were really focused. We had a really good week of practice, and I think it showed up in the game."
The Patriots didn't commit any obvious acts of retaliation themselves, but they did throw their weight around in a few different instances.
Dont'a Hightower sent Bills running back Mike Gillislee to the sidelines in the first quarter with one of the hardest hits any Patriots player has dished out this season. Devin McCourty laid into Bills receiver Brandon Tate and forced him from the game with a jarring shot of his own. Offensively, the Patriots were still chucking it into the fourth quarter despite a 21-point lead.
Nothing unsportsmanlike. Nothing illegal. But perhaps there were shots here and there to let the Bills know they weren't thrilled with what happened earlier this month.
New England Patriots
"We never look to go and incite anything," Brady said. "We just go out there and try to play hard, and try to do our job. Those things have been successful for our team. I don’t think there’s any reason to change at this point.
"Every week is different process that you go through. You have different histories with different teams. Our job is to go out there and be motivated and ready to go. We only play one game, three hours a week. Coach always says those are the three hours you have to be ready to go and all the other stuff doesn’t mean anything. You have to have all your mental, physical energy ready to go for those three hours, and we did that yesterday."