Patriots vs. Bills: Score and Twitter Reaction from 2016 Regular Season

Winning the Most Valuable Player award after missing a quarter of the season should be impossible, but Tom Brady is doing his best to prove otherwise.

Brady threw four touchdown passes to four different receivers as the New England Patriots went on the road Sunday and earned a 41-25 win over the Buffalo Bills.

The Patriots are 4-0 since Brady's return and head into their bye week with a three-game lead in the AFC East. Brady has thrown 12 touchdowns without an interception, and New England remains the NFL's only team that has yet to throw a pick.

Kevin O'Connor of The Ringer was impressed:

Brady has not missed a step since returning from his four-game Deflategate suspension. The Patriots are averaging 34 points per game during their winning streak and have done it in different ways.

After weeks of dishing out the bulk of his touchdowns to tight ends, Brady got his wide receivers involved Sunday, when Chris Hogan, Danny Amendola and Julian Edelman hauled in their first Brady-thrown touchdowns of the season.

Hogan and Brady connected on a 53-yard score in the first quarter, which was reminiscent of some old-school Patriots offense, as the NFL showed:

With that said, it was still the Rob Gronkowski show whenever Brady wanted. Gronkowski led the Patriots with 109 yards and five receptions, including a 53-yard touchdown in the second quarter. It was Gronkowski's 69th career touchdown reception, setting a Patriots record.

Josh Gondelman, a writer for HBO's Last Week Tonight, had a joke ready:

As did everyone else:

The Bills wound up being blown out despite finding success offensively. They had 376 total yards and 25 first downs. With the Patriots recording 357 yards and 23 first downs, the stats told a different story than the final score, but the Patriots did a better job of finishing their drives.

Buffalo converted on only four of its 13 third-down tries and was 2-of-4 on fourth downs. Quarterback Tyrod Taylor struggled with accuracy issues, completing 19-of-38 passes for 183 yards. The Bills were largely confined to underneath throws, and Taylor missed his target on attempts that could have extended potential scoring drives.

Esquire's Charles Pierce didn't blame Taylor, though:

The dual-threat quarterback did add 48 yards on the ground as part of a successful Buffalo running game. Starting in place of an injured LeSean McCoy (hamstring), Mike Gillislee rushed for 85 yards and a touchdown. The Bills rushed for 167 yards overall and averaged 6.4 yards per carry.

None of that was enough to change the fact that Buffalo dropped to 4-4 and has lost two straight important division games. With trips to Seattle and Cincinnati coming up in their next two games, the Bills could fall out of the playoff picture in a couple of weeks.

The Patriots, meanwhile, seem like mortal locks for the AFC's top seed, barring a major injury. They're the only 7-1 team in the NFL, and neither the Oakland Raiders (6-2) nor the Denver Broncos (5-2) look strong enough to catch up during the regular season.

Given the way Brady's playing, no one may catch up to New England at all.

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Post-Game Reaction

Brady discussed Gronkowski's record-breaking touchdown:

"

It's a great accomplishment. He is a dynamic player for us. He makes great plays in the pass game, down the field, intermediate, short; he's tough to tackle. He has a great enthusiasm about him. He's just done a great job since he's been here, so it's a credit to him and his toughness, his mental toughness. I've always talked about that with him and his ability to overcome the difficulties that he's faced over his career to get to this point. We need it because he's such a great player for our team. 

"

Brady also talked about being 7-1: "Well, it's pretty early still. We've got a long way to go. I think 7-1 is good, but coach always says 7 wins won't get you anything in this league and he's right so we have a lot of football ahead. This is when it starts to get to feeling like football season."

Gronkowski discussed breaking the franchise record in his home town of Buffalo:

"

We never envisioned it like that. I never envisioned it like that. Definitely envisioned big things though, but nothing like that on a scale of being like this so, it's just unbelievable. And to come back to my hometown where I grew up watching all the Bills games vs. the Patriots, so it's just an unbelievable honor and just got to give a lot of credit to this organization overall for giving me all the opportunities and helping me to get to where I am.       

"

Rob Gronkowski: lover of bowing and moms:

"

The bow, just bowing. You know, just bowing and it was awesome. But I want to give a shout out to my mom because the first thing yesterday, we sat down when I saw her she came to my hotel, we sat down she goes, “Rob, I'm so proud of you when you score your 69th touchdown.” So I was like, I have to give her a shout out now for sure for letting me know that she's super proud of me so, hi mom, and thank you.

"

Follow Tyler Conway (@jtylerconway) on Twitter.