Bill Belichick's teams have contained some of the most potent offenses in Buffalo Bills

history.

So the fact Belichick was missing two of his key defensive linemen Sunday was not going to

deter his New England Patriots against one of the worst offenses in Bills history.

Belichick and the Patriots put a cap on their decade of dominance over the Bills by

stifling the Buffalo offense in a 17-10 decision at Ralph Wilson Stadium.

"It's always

tough against Buffalo," Belichick said afterward. "It seems like we have a real dog fight with

them all the time. They played us tough, as they always do, and fortunately we were able to

make enough plays to win today."

Fortunately? The crowd of 70,000 at Ralph Wilson Stadium had seen this result enough to

know the Pats' good fortune had little to do with it.

The win was the Patriots' 13th straight over the Bills, which is tied for the

fourth-longest streak ever by one NFL team over another. The Pats (9-5) earned their 18th win

in the last 19 tries against the Bills (5-9).

And get this: It was the 17th time in 20 games against the Pats this decade in which the

Bills scored one offensive touchdown or less.

"I give them credit," Bills coach Perry Fewell said. "They made the right adjustments. We

just didn't sustain the blocks that we needed to sustain. We didn't throw the ball effectively

to keep the drives going, and we just kind of lost focus in my opinion in order to keep those

drives going."

The Bills' defense was valiant yet again in defeat, holding Pats quarterback Tom Brady to

season lows in completions (11), attempts (23) and yards (115). NFL receptions leader Wes

Welker was held to a season-low four catches.

But the Buffalo attack was miserable again, unable to get the ball to its playmakers in the

passing game. Terrell Owens had two catches for 20 yards. Lee Evans had three for 35, with a

touchdown coming with 3:02 left.

The Pats, ranked 26th in the league in sacks per pass attempt, had six takedowns.

Bills quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick was pulled from the game early in the fourth quarter.

But Trent Edwards' relief stint lasted just four plays. Edwards, on the bench the previous

four games, got sacked twice and suffered an ankle injury.

Fitzpatrick returned to run the final two Bills' possessions.

"We were not converting on third downs," Fewell said in explaining the switch. "We needed

something to give us some momentum so I made the decision. I thought Trent could come in and

maybe give us a little spark, give us some momentum."

"I don't really know what went into the decision," Evans said. "It was kind of a crucial

point in the game. I don't know why that decision was made but it was made. So I don't really

know why."

Tully Banta-Cain led the Pats' pass rush with three sacks.

The Pats were without Pro Bowl nose tackle Vince Wilfork and veteran defensive end Ty

Warren due to injury. However, it still was not a fair fight given the state of the Bills'

offensive line, which was playing with three backups. Right guard Richie Incognito was forced

to start on just his fifth day with the Bills due to the season-ending injury to Kendall

Simmons, who likewise had been pressed into service on less than a week's notice.

Fitzpatrick hit 17 of 25 passes for 178 yards. But he was harassed all day.

The Bills were flagged for 11 penalties for 124 yards, the most yardage against a Buffalo

team in seven years. Five of the Bills' drives were hindered by offensive penalties.

"You have to give credit to them," receiver Josh Reed said. "But we did a lot of things to

beat ourselves out there."

"It's pretty much the way it's been all year," Owens said. "It's kind of hard to get into a

rhythm. Fitz is having a hard time when he's dropping back as far as protection and trying to

establish something in the pass game, and it's just been that way all year."

With the Bills putting themselves into frequent second-and-long and third-and-long

situations, the Patriots were able to employ a "walk-around" defensive front, with just one

defensive lineman putting his hand on the ground and the rest of the defenders milling around

before the snap of the ball.

Said Fitzpatrick: "On third downs, their thing was going to be, "Let's make this line

communicate as much as possible, let's put some pressure on them and see how they're going to

react to it.' "

"It's definitely tough when they do those walk-around fronts," running back Fred Jackson

said. "Today I struggled. Today was probably one of my worst days in pass blocking. It's

something I have to look at in the film room."

"We tried to mix it up," Belichick said. "We had a lot of different guys coming. We had some

DBs and our linebackers try to stem the front and move it around a bit; just make them work to

pick it up. Sometimes maybe we caught them a little off guard or a little bit hesitant trying

to figure out who's who."

The Bills finished 2 of 12 on third-down conversions, dropping their success rate for the

season to 25.28 percent. That's the worst in the league and the fourth worst by any NFL team

in the last 20 years.