Tom Brady, Patriots pull out victory over Bills

Back on center stage, Tom Brady acted like, well, the NFL’s biggest star.

It seemed to take forever, though.

A year after being sidelined with torn knee ligaments, Brady resembled a rusty game manager more than the invincible record-setting quarterback who guided the Patriots to a perfect 2007 regular season. Yet, he threw two touchdown passes in the final 2:06 as New England beat the Buffalo Bills, 25-24, on Monday night.

When the spotlight hit, Brady lived up to the advance billing. But he needed help in the form of Leodis McKelvin’s fumble on a kickoff return after the Patriots pulled within five points.

Placekicker Stephen Gostkowski recovered at the Buffalo 31. Brady needed three plays before hitting Benjamin Watson over the middle for the decisive 16-yard touchdown with 50 seconds to go.

Just 1:16 earlier, he found Watson on a similar play for an 18-yard score. It was vintage Brady, who threw for a record 50 touchdowns two years ago in leading New England to a perfect record.

That season was spoiled in Brady’s last full game that counted, the February 2008 Super Bowl loss to the New York Giants. He was hurt in last season’s opener.

Now he’s back, though for much of the game he and the Patriots played conservatively, even passively. Indeed, Buffalo seemed ready to break an 11-game losing streak against New England and win for the first time in Gillette Stadium.

Then came the late fireworks, demonstrating that Tom Terrific hasn’t lost his touch.

“That’s not how we drew it up, but I’ll take it,” Brady said. “We did a lot of things poorly, but we got the win.”

Buffalo did a lot of things well, but got a shocking loss.

Coming off a 1-4 preseason in which the offense flopped, the Bills made plenty of big plays.

Trent Edwards outperformed Brady for much of the game and threw for two scores. A 10-yard screen pass to Fred Jackson put Buffalo ahead, 24-13, with 5:32 to go -- even though Terrell Owens barely caused a ripple. Owens had two catches for 46 yards.