Offenses veer in 4th quarter

Yesterday, Brady excelled when it mattered most for his team, while Bledsoe wilted under pressure. And Brady's team won.

In the Patriots' 31-17 win over the Bills at Ralph Wilson Stadium, Brady completed 17 of 30 passes for 298 yards and Bledsoe went 18 of 30 for 247 yards.

Where the pair veered came in the fourth quarter, when Brady led his team on a touchdown drive and Bledose and Co. botched a fourth-down play.

They diverged in decision-making, too. Brady threw no interceptions and wasn't sacked. Bledsoe committed two turnovers -- a fumble and an interception -- and took seven sacks for the second straight game, further cementing his reputation as a shaky signal-caller in Buffalo.

"We are making mistakes at the wrong time, especially against the defending world champs," said a dejected Bledsoe. "You can't make mistakes like that and expect to win the ball game."

Meanwhile, Brady played as steady as everyone has come to expect of him. He converted 5 of 11 third downs and always protected the ball.

"That's always how he is, and that's always how he's going to be," Patriots receiver David Givens said. "He's a cool, calm, collected guy. He never really gets rattled."

In other words, the opposite of Bledsoe.

Early, Bledsoe showed glimpses of the gunslinger he can be at his best. He threw for 134 yards in the first half, including a magnificent 41-yard touchdown to Eric Moulds.

In the end, though, Brady overshadowed his onetime mentor so emphatically it was hard to imagine Brady ever served as his backup.

On his interception, made by Tyrone Poole defending Moulds, Bledsoe admitted to being fooled by the defense. He lofted a pass to Moulds, but only Poole was there. Moulds adjusted to the coverage, a corner blitz by the Patriots, but Bledsoe didn't.

"They got me," Bledsoe said. "I made a poor read on it."

The Patriots got Bledsoe again on the game's biggest play. On a fourth-and-3 at the Patriots' 17, Bledsoe was called on to fake a handoff to Travis Henry then roll out.

The play turned into a disaster. Tedy Bruschi crushed him, causing Bledsoe to fumble. When Richard Seymour snagged the loose ball and rumbled for a touchdown, the outcome was determined.

When asked about being the focal point on a team plagued by mistakes, Bledsoe sounded almost desperate.

"Listen, I don't think of it that way," Bledsoe said. "I was sitting there at my locker for 10 minutes trying to figure it out and in the shower trying to figure it out. What can I do to make a change? I have a couple of ideas that I haven't clearly thought through yet."

While Bledsoe fell victim to misreading defenses, Brady carved apart Buffalo's porous secondary by making fast decisions against unrelenting blitzes. With the Patriots' receivers playing against mostly single coverage for the first half, Brady hit two passes of more than 40 yards, one to Givens and one to David Patten.

"We knew they were going to blitz a lot," Brady said. "They do a very good job of disguising where the blitzes are coming from. I thought we handled it pretty well."

His biggest play, though, came in the fourth quarter, when he found Daniel Graham in the back of the end zone. He threaded a 2-yard pass to Graham through a maze of arms to put the Patriots up, 24-17, with 11:17 to play.

It was just another big play by Brady in another win for the Patriots, their 18th in a row, including postseason. But Brady isn't focused on that.

"If you ever look back, people are going to track you down and beat you all over the field and you're going to feel like crap," Brady said. "We're just going to keep getting better and focus on next week."