Tom Brady’s 3 TD passes, 2 to Randy Moss, lead Patriots to 14th straight win over Bills, 38-30

Brady throws for 3 TDs, Pats beat Bills 38-30

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Tom Brady regained his touch. The Buffalo Bills, as usual, couldn’t find theirs against the New England Patriots.

Brady threw three scoring passes, two of them to Randy Moss, and the Patriots beat Buffalo 38-30 on Sunday, their 14th straight win over the Bills.

New England tied Miami for the longest winning streak against a single opponent. The Dolphins beat the Colts in 14 straight games from 1980-1987. The Colts moved from Baltimore to Indianapolis in 1984.

First-round draft pick C.J. Spiller scored his first NFL touchdowns on a 5-yard pass from Ryan Fitzpatrick and a 95-yard kickoff return, but Buffalo’s last chance faded when Fitzpatrick threw an interception to Brandon Meriweather with 3 minutes left.

New England (2-1) took a 17-16 lead at intermission on Stephen Gostkowski’s 43-yard field goal on the last play of the half. Buffalo (0-3) had its best offensive day of the season, but still came up short as it settled for three first-half field goals by Rian Lindell instead of touchdowns.

The Bills cut the lead to 38-30 following Fitzpatrick’s 37-yard scoring pass to Steve Johnson with 4:08 left, then got the ball back on a punt. But on the next play, Fitzpatrick overthrew tight end David Nelson on the left side and Meriweather came down with the ball.

BenJarvus Green-Ellis rushed for 98 yards and a touchdown on 16 carries, helping make up for the loss of Kevin Faulk. Faulk suffered a season-ending knee injury a week earlier in a 28-14 loss at the New York Jets. Brady had a mediocre performance in that game after throwing three scoring passes in a season-opening win over the Bengals.

On Sunday, he completed 21 of 27 passes for 252 yards and no interceptions.

The Bills’ offense was much better than in their first two games. In the first half, they piled up 202 yards after gaining 186 in four quarters in a 34-7 loss to the Packers a week earlier.

The change in starting quarterbacks from Trent Edwards to the more mobile Fitzpatrick helped produce more points than the 17 the Bills totaled in their first two games. But the result was the same. Fitzpatrick completed 20 of 28 passes for 247 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions.

After Buffalo went ahead 14-13 following Spiller’s touchdown catch, Danny Woodhead scored on a 22-yard run, his first NFL touchdown. The Patriots signed him a week earlier after he was released by the Jets.

Brady hit Moss for a 35-yard touchdown on the first series of the third quarter as the Patriots went ahead 24-16. Moss caught the ball in the middle of the end zone behind two defenders and knocked down back judge Perry Paganelli, who quickly got up and gave the touchdown signal.

Spiller returned the kickoff for a touchdown, but the Patriots came right back on a 5-yard scoring pass from Brady to Rob Gronkowski for a 31-23 lead. Green-Ellis then scored on a 7-yard run for a 15-point lead.