Notebook: Pats, McDaniels had to adjust on the fly without Rob Gronkowski in lineup

TAMPA BAY — It sounded like the call to sit Rob Gronkowski down for Thursday’s game against the Bucs was a last-minute decision.

Gronkowski, who popped up on the injury report on Wednesday with a thigh issue, made the trip to Florida with his teammates, but ended up hanging out on the sidelines for the duration of the evening. In the end, he missed his first game of the season. And as a result, the Patriots ended up leaning more on wide receiver Danny Amendola, who finished with eight catches on eight targets for 77 yards.

There were some changes that had to be made to the initial game plan, and apparently, offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels was the one who got it done.

“I think Josh did a great job on that, as he always does,” said Bill Belichick. “We played a lot of four wide receivers and some other personnel groups probably more than we would have played if Rob had been in the game. It’s one of the things Josh does a great job of is having a breadth to the offense with different personnel groups and different people and utilizing different combinations so that if he needs to move from one to another he can do that pretty easily.”

“I think we were working the game plan all the way until (Thursday) morning,” said Tom Brady when it came to contingencies for planning for life sans Gronkowski. “(But) Danny played great. He always does. He had had such a great year, and I am just so proud of him. He’s so tough. I’ve got such a great group of teammates and Danny is someone I just love playing with. I know Gronk was trying to of, (but) he just didn’t make it on this short time frame. But hopefully, with the long break, he can be ready this week.”

Kicking it

The difference couldn’t have been more stark. On Tampa’s sideline, you had a kicker in Nick Folk who missed three field-goal attempts. For New England, Stephen Gostkowski connected on all four of his opportunities, banging home field goals from 27, 23, 45 and 48 yards. (Gostkowski is now 12-for-12 on field-goal attempts to start the season.)

Folk heard it from the fans at Raymond James, especially after his second-half miss. He acknowledged that if he had made even one of his field-goal attempts, it might have been a different story.

“I left points out there,” Folk said. “We should have won that game, 20-19. This one’s on me.”

“Steve is so clutch,” said Brady of Gostkowski’s fourth-quarter kick from 48 yards out that ended the scoring on the night. “He banged it right through. So that was big. That was a big score, obviously. They got right down to scoring range, so I’m glad he came through, as he always does.”

Winston backs Brady

It was an interesting postgame scene underneath the stands at Raymond James Stadium, where Brady spent some quality time with Tampa quarterback Jameis Winston. Winston family gushed about Brady in his postgame press conference, saying it was a “privilege and an honor” to meet Brady.

“He’s definitely an inspiration to me in the quarterback position,” said Winston, who finished 26-for-46 for 334 yards and a touchdown pass. “I think every young kid that grows up with a football in their hand aspires to be a Peyton Manning or Tom Brady or Joe Montana — guys of that nature.

“To get a chance to look him in the eye and shake his hand, it just felt good. It felt good. I never met him before. That was another highlight of my day. I hate that he beat me, but he beats a lot of people.”

For his part, Brady didn’t hold back in his praise of Winston. Asked for his reaction to Winston’s praise, he volleyed it right back into Winston’s court.

“I feel that same way about a lot of younger players too,” Brady said. “I watch those guys and try to learn from them. I was young and I learned from the older guys, and now that I’m older I’m trying to learn from the young guys. It’s just the way it goes. (Winston) is a great young player and he obviously led the team back tonight and they were very close. I got a chance to say hi to him, before the game. He’s got a great future.”

Road warriors

Thursday’s game was the 10th straight regular-season road win for the Patriots, a streak that dates back all the way to the start of the 2016 season. It’s second in franchise history to the 12 straight road games the team won from Dec. 24, 2006 through Oct. 5, 2008. That one is second in NFL history to the all-time best, an 18-game road game win streak by the Niners from 1988-90. … The win also saw Brady tie Brett Favre and Manning for most regular-season wins by a starting quarterback at 186. By way of comparison, Brady won his 186th regular season game in his 242nd game and 240th start. Favre won his 186th game in his 297th start and his 301st game, while Manning won his 186th win in his 263rd start and game. Brady has 186 career regular season wins with the Patriots, the most wins by a starting quarterback with one team. Favre is second with 160 with Green Bay. … It wasn’t all perfect for Brady, who threw his first pick of the 2017 season on his fifth attempt of the game. It ended a streak of 264 regular season passes dating back to last season without a pick, the second-longest streak of his career.