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Game review shows direction of AFC East

Patriots quarterback Tom Brady had a hard time staying upright against the Bills pressure on Monday.Jim Davis/Globe staff/Globe Staff

Monday night's 20-13 win was not your typical Patriots-Bills blowout, but the end result was representative of the teams' fortunes over the past 15 years:

On the handful of plays that mattered, the Patriots came through in the clutch and the Bills didn't.

The Bills were on much more of an even playing field against the wounded Patriots than they were back in Week 2, when the Patriots rolled to a 40-32 victory. And this game really came down to just a few plays that the Patriots executed and the Bills didn't.

The Bills had a fantastic defensive game plan that thoroughly frustrated Tom Brady and his offensive linemen, yet the Patriots of course took advantage of the Bills' few coverage breakdowns.

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The Bills forgot to cover the middle of the field in the first quarter, and Brady found Brandon LaFell for 27 yards.

Safety Corey Graham was a second late rotating over and covering the ground vacated by a blitzing cornerback, allowing James White to beat him around the corner and slip into the end zone for a 20-yard catch.

The Bills blitzed six on third and 7 in the third quarter, and Brady found Danny Amendola wide open for a 41-yard catch. And right after that big catch, the Patriots rushed to the line of scrimmage and snapped the ball before the Bills could set up their defense, allowing White to scamper into the end zone from 6 yards. Hey, it's not the Patriots' fault that the officials messed up the play.

The Bills, meanwhile, always seemed to come up just short at the most crucial times. Tyrod Taylor missed a big play with Chris Hogan, underthrowing the receiver in the second quarter and allowing Patrick Chung to make up ground and knock the pass away.

Taylor missed a potential touchdown to LeSean McCoy, floating the ball just high enough to allow Devin McCourty to race all the way over and knock the pass out of McCoy's hands at the last second. Taylor couldn't connect with Sammy Watkins when he was matched up 1-on-1 deep with Malcolm Butler. Taylor underthrew Hogan again, and a 31-yard gain could have been more.

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And when the Bills reached the 15-yard line in the fourth quarter, the offense stalled and couldn't punch the ball into the end zone, settling for a short field goal.

The Bills played the Patriots tough and looked like a decent team on Monday night. But the Bills have to play a perfect game to topple the Pats, and were far from perfect on a handful of key plays.

Other observations after re-watching the game film:

When the Patriots had the ball . . .

Credit Rex Ryan and the Bills for doing a great job disguising their pass rush and coverages and winning a lot of the mental battles with Brady up front.

They hit Brady a whopping 10 times, but didn't have to send more than four rushers to generate pressure, and created a lot of free shots at the quarterback.

Ryan went with the "sugar" formation with seven or eight defenders up on the line of scrimmage, and zone blitzed up a storm, often sending only three rushers at the quarterback and flooding the passing lanes with big bodies. The Bills would form a wall of defenders about 8 yards off the ball, content to give Amendola a 4-yard pass underneath but then swarm to the ball. The Bills had an excellent tackling day, and yards after the catch were at a premium for the Patriots.

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The Bills sent both of their linebackers, plus defensive backs Graham and Nickell Robey at Brady all game, and the offensive linemen had a tough time identifying the rushers.

The Bills took a number of free shots at Brady, and although they only sacked him one time, they forced him to throw the ball directly into the turf eight times. Amendola's 41-yard catch and run was on a six-blitz, however.

 Marcus Cannon returned to play all 67 snaps, and, well, he was pretty terrible. He played every snap at left tackle (except for one power play when he lined up next to Sebastian Vollmer on the right side and helped LeGarrette Blount pick up a first down), and couldn’t handle defensive end Jerry Hughes, allowing six pressures, two hits, and committing three penalties (false start, holding, and illegal formation).

But Cameron Fleming was even worse at right tackle, getting the hook after 13 snaps. And Cannon has better foot speed than Vollmer to play left tackle. So the Patriots' best offensive line combination moving forward would be Cannon-Shaq Mason-Bryan Stork-Josh Kline-Vollmer. Kline was excellent in pass protection Monday night.

 Amendola did a heck of a Julian Edelman impression, using his quick movements to work the linebackers and safeties over the middle of the field. He had nine catches on 12 targets before leaving the game late in the third quarter.

But the Patriots just don't have enough horses to win the one-on-one matchups on the outside right now. LaFell and Amendola are better suited as fourth and fifth options, not second and third. The Bills' coverage of Rob Gronkowski wasn't anything exotic — Ronald Darby when Gronk lined up left, Stephone Gilmore when Gronk lined up right, and a linebacker and a safety when he lined up in the middle — yet Gronk struggled to get open and Brady couldn't get him the football more than twice.

 I do hope the Patriots get White more involved in the passing game, particularly with screens. He had a nice little 12-yard run on a screen pass to open the game, accelerating away from two defenders. And he showed great speed in getting around the edge on his touchdown catch. White is no Dion Lewis, but the Patriots should try to find ways to get him involved.

When the Bills had the ball . . .

 The creativity of Bill Belichick and Matt Patricia paid off once again for the Patriots, who faced a crisis on defense with Jamie Collins (illness) out again and only three healthy cornerbacks thanks to Justin Coleman’s hand injury. So who do they tab to be their big secret weapon? None other than Tavon Wilson, the fourth-year safety who hadn’t played in four weeks and had played just nine defensive snaps all season.

But Wilson played 50 snaps against the Bills, and he was surprisingly great. The stat sheet says he only made three tackles, but he provided surprisingly tight coverage as a slot cornerback, created two quarterback pressures, made a nice form tackle on a short gain by Hogan, and made a great play to jar the ball loose from Robert Woods. Wilson also filled in admirably for Collins as the spy for Taylor, who ran just four times for 1 yard.

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Wilson was a surprise draft pick by the Patriots in the second round of 2012, but he played some cornerback in college, has a good combination of size and speed (6 feet, 215 pounds), and could be an important fill-in during the home stretch.

 Cornerbacks Butler and Logan Ryan were excellent again. They played a decent amount of Cover 3 zone, and even some Cover 2 with Chung as a deep safety, but Butler held Watkins to three catches for 39 yards and Ryan allowed just 1 of 6 completions for 4 yards. And the safeties had an excellent game as well. McCourty got redemption for his bad angle against Odell Beckham Jr. and the Giants by taking an incredible angle to break up McCoy’s potential touchdown catch. Chung has evolved into an every-down player (all 71 snaps), and had a great day in coverage other than one 14-yarder to Charles Clay. And Harmon’s ability to patrol center field allows the Patriots to use McCourty as a slot cornerback in certain nickel and dime situations. The Patriots may be short on cornerbacks right now, but make up for it with several versatile safeties.

 The Patriots used a lot of zone blitzes similar to the Bills, and Jabaal Sheard and Dont’a Hightower were active in the pass rush. The run defense was stout once again, holding the Bills to 3.1 yards per rush. Hightower, Sheard, and Jonathan Freeny all had stuffs in the run game, and Chandler Jones made a great play on Taylor for a loss of 6 yards, snuffing out a potential pitch or shovel pass.

Alan Branch and Akiem Hicks are a force in the run game, and Dominique Easley and Malcom Brown come in on passing downs and continue to get consistent pressure up the middle. Jerod Mayo was mostly limited to first downs and played only 16 snaps, but made two really nice stuffs in the run game and surprisingly held his own in pass coverage against the speedy McCoy. Ryan also had a terrific form tackle for a stick in the run game.


Ben Volin can be reached at ben.volin@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @BenVolin