By Kate Joseph
Staff writer
The New England Patriots kicked off their 2013-2014 season this past Sunday against the Buffalo Bills at Ralph Wilson Stadium in New York, cinching a 23-21 win with seconds to spare.
The game started off strong despite an unfortunate fumble by CJ Spiller, but quarterback Tom Brady managed to keep the team together and pull off a win. “I didn’t have a lot of doubt,” remarked Brady. “We’ve got a team full of fighters.
There’s going to be some ugly wins, but we’re always going to fight until the end.”
While the Patriots led with 10 points in the 1st quarter, the Bills led the second and third quarters with 14 and 7 points gained respectively while the Pats only managed to garner 1 touch down in the 2nd quarter.
By the fourth quarter the score had reached 17-21, with the Patriots down by 4. To finish off the game, New England obtained 6 points thanks to two field goals by Stephen Gostkowski, including one from 35 years with only 5 seconds left in the game. The play was perfectly set up by Brady and the rest of the team after 12 plays.
Other standout players through the game included Danny Amendola who assisted Brady over 10 yards; Shane Vereen, who managed to run 15 yards on another play; and wide receiver Julian Edelman, who caught both of Brady’s touchdown passes.
The Bills also racked up 10 penalties, making them weak in the face of the Patriots.
Coach Bill Belichick stood by his team’s efforts saying, “I was proud of our team today. Obviously, it wasn’t perfect. And there’s a lot of things we can do better. But they played the last few minutes of the game the way we needed to play it.”
The Patriots return tonight, Thursday, Sept. 12, to face the New York Jets. Both teams will fight to advance their identical 1-0 records at 8:25 p.m. at Gilette Stadium.
