FOXBOROUGH — For all of the misery that the Patriots have doled out toward the Bills for close to two decades, there was no air of vengeance wafting around Buffalo’s locker room on Thursday night.
At the podium of Gillette Stadium’s visiting-club press room, no Bills players danced upon the grave of the franchise that routuinely made Buffalo its punching bag in lopsided blowouts.
There were no verbal barbs tossed out. No mocking putdowns sheathed in the usual spiel of cliched musings following Buffalo’s 24-10 victory in enemy territory.
Granted, a lot has changed on Buffalo’s roster over the last few years. Yes, Josh Allen and Sean McDermott both took their lumps in their first few seasons as the Brady Era began to wind down, but the longest-tenured player on Buffalo’s roster is 28-year-old long-snapper Reid Ferguson — arriving on the scene back in 2016.
But given the presence that the Patriots still cast over the NFL — due in large part to their matchless reign of dominance — the task of going into Foxborough and handing the likes of Bill Belichick and Co. a loss is an accomplishment that many other franchises would usually wax poetic about in scrum after scrum.
Rather, the Bills’ postgame pressers on Thursday were … well, pretty boring.
There was no big-picture observation about what a win in Gillette means for a team like Buffalo.
Stefon Diggs could have easily gone on and on about Jon Jones' futile attempts to keep him bottled up in man coverage, but focused more on his own team’s run game and the contributions of his quarterback.
Even McDermott — who less than a year ago tossed out a dig about Belichick and his influence over the product out on the gridiron — kept things by the book and cordial in wake of his team toying with the Patriots most of the evening.
"I mean a divisional win is important," McDermott said. "We knew coming in here it was gonna be tough against a good football team. They're well-coached and prepared every week (Uhhhhhh…) Thankful to get a win."
If Thursday’s disheartening showing by the Patriots in their own building represented the latest low point in terms of how far away this team is from the true contenders in the AFC — the Bills sure seemed to validate it with their pedestrian postgame remarks.
The Bills didn’t waste most of their time speaking about the Patriots on Thursday night because … well, this vaunted, aging juggernaut-turned-Ozymandias is now just another footnote in Buffalo’s schedule — an inconvenience as it sets its sights on the likes of Miami, Kansas City and other contenders.
A trek to Gillette Stadium, once a house of horrors to even the most fearsome opponents, is now nothing more than a stopover snooze in Providence … an aperitif before a scheduled bout against a Patriots team that can (and will) make things easy for you — thanks to their propensity for shooting themselves in the foot.
After years upon years of Patriots fans chortling at the ill-prepped and poorly-coached squads that Tom Brady and Co. would shred into mincemeat every Sunday, the fortunes have flipped in Foxborough. And even in a contest where the Bills only won by two touchdowns, that 14-point gap felt like a chasm, given the performance of the Pats.
“Only 24 points, but our defense played fantastic ball,” Allen said. “We didn't feel like we had to press and make any mistakes.”
All things considered, it was a rather stress-free evening for Allen and Co. — a far cry from the chaotic mess brewing across the field.
Gone are the days in which opposing coaches wouldn’t log a lick of sleep in anticipation of whatever Belichick and Co. brewed up for them — not after Minnesota and Buffalo’s top weapons in Justin Jefferson and Diggs/Allen dissected the Patriots' defense at just about every critical juncture of what quickly devolved into a laugher.
"We were skipping some third downs, which is always a plus,” Allen said. “And then when we did have third downs, we were putting our noses down and going and getting it, being really physical and playing some physical football.”
Gone are the Monday mornings when coaches would wish they could burn the game tape after Brady and Belichick exposed just about every fault in their team’s defensive structure.
“That's why you play the game,” Jordan Poyer said of Buffalo’s efforts at slowing down Mac Jones and the Patriots' offense. “You want to get him in situations where we feel good about it and you want to be able to stop the run and get Mac to try to win the game with his arm. We talk about a closer — we didn't get a closer today, trying to get an interception or a fumble to end the game, but we held them to three points at the end of the game. ... We got it done."
And gone are the days in which the Bills — having finally slayed the beast by way of postseason triumphs over New England — will devote much time harping on the aura and prestige that their divisional nemesis cultivated for years.
Because these aren’t those same Patriots that tormented the Bills year after year.
This Patriots team is now just another divisional speed bump on the way to greater aspirations for Buffalo.
Another stepping stone. Another team that only warrants blase postgame comments.
An afterthought.
And for the once-proud Patriots, such a tossed-aside designation might be the greatest insult of them all.