Rex Burkhead went from possible Patriots’ goat – not the Tom Brady kind – to hero in the span of less than 60 minutes of football in Saturday evening’s 24-17, division-clinching win over the Bills at Gillette Stadium.
With the Patriots moving the ball on the game’s opening drive, Burkhead had the ball punched out for a lost fumble at the conclusion of an 18-yard gain on a screen pass. The turnover gave the Bills a short field drive to a game-opening field goal and some early momentum.
“You got to put it behind you and understand there is a lot more football to be played and understand you can really help the game out and turn the game into a positive,” Burkhead said afterwards. “So that is what I was trying to do whenever my number was called or any way I could impact the game, I tried to the best of my ability.”
Burkhead did just that and did so in impressive fashion according to his head coach. He finished with a team-high 77 yards receiving on four catches as a key cog in the passing game against Buffalos’ No. 3-ranked defense.
But no play was more impressive than Burkhead’s go-head, 1-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter. The veteran back ran through a big hit from a Bills’ defender on his way to the critical score.
“That was a good run. That was a real good run,” Bill Belichick said in his Sunday morning day-after-game conference call. “He was kind of going sideways a little bit when he got hit there, I thought he did a real good job of dropping his pads and playing through the contact, keeping his balance and running into the end zone. That was an excellent run. Rex has had a lot of good runs for us throughout the course of the year. Obviously the one last week in space and the one you just referenced in tight quarters with contact. I thought he played well for us. And, again, he’s given us good plays on fourth down as well, in both the running game and in the passing game.
“I know he felt bad about the play in the screen pass at the start of the game, but Rex is a tough competitor. He blocked well. He ran well. He caught the ball well. And played well for us in the kicking game. That was an excellent run. His lower-body strength and balance, and Sony showed a lot of that yesterday too. There were a lot of plays with Sony [Michel> that were, looked like 2-yard gains and ended up being 5 or 6. So leg drive, pad level, power in a short area showed up for both those players.”
Burkhead finished with 20 yards rushing on his five attempts – none more impressive than his score – but deferred praise to the big guys in the trenches on a day when the Patriots churned out 35 attempts for 143 yards on the ground against what’s supposed to be one of the best defenses in the game.
“Our offensive line did a tremendous job all night, just really playing physical from the get go, opening up lanes for myself, Sony and James [White>. Of course the tight ends and E-Rob [Elandon Roberts> doing their part as well. So all the credit goes to those guys,” Burkhead said.
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