Patriots

Patriots will remember unique win over Bills ’10, 20, 30 years from now,’ per Matthew Slater

"That's why we practice in this s---."

By Tom Westerholm

December 7, 2021

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The Patriots claimed an odd, frigid victory over the Bills on Monday, and Matthew Slater thinks the team will remember it for a long time.

In a postgame video posted to Twitter, Slater — who Bill Belichick called the team’s “orator” during his own remarks — gave his usual postgame speech.

“Tonight is one of those nights, fellas, that you’ll remember 10, 15, 20 years from now,” Slater said, to general murmurs of assent. “You won’t remember the cold. You’ll remember the way we responded.

“It ain’t going to come to us easy, fellas. We’re going to have to fight and claw and scrap.”

The conditions were less than ideal — swirling snow and wind gusts of up to 55 mph. The Patriots responded by bullying the Bills with 222 rushing yards, allowing Mac Jones to throw just three times (twice in the fourth quarter when they were trying to close the game down).

Somehow, that strategy worked.

“That’s why we practice in this s—,” Belichick said with a huge grin.

As the Patriots filed into the locker room, Kyle Van Noy greeted Patriots owner Robert Kraft.

“That was a good win,” Van Noy said.

“I loved it,” Kraft answered.

The Bills get another crack at the Patriots on Dec. 26, but they should be forewarned: The Patriots plan to unlock another element of their game.

“We can use our whole passing game,” Belichick told the Greg Hill Show on Tuesday. “All the pass plays that we have, they haven’t seen. We can use all of them next time we play them. That game plan’s already been made.”