(My Sportsbook) - Perhaps it was unrealistic to expect the New England Patriots to display their 2007 form in Week 1 of the 2009 season.

Even with Tom Brady back after missing nearly all of the 2008 campaign with a serious knee injury, and surrounded by new weapons like Fred Taylor and Joey Galloway. Even while facing a Buffalo Bills squad that looked to be as big a mess as any in the NFL entering Week 1, with an offensive coordinator that had been in his job all of one week, a starting running back on the suspended list, and three starting offensive linemen who were appearing in their first meaningful NFL game. Even at Gillette Stadium, where the Patriots had never lost to the Bills, and could usually be counted on to pound their longtime AFC East rival.

Despite all those factors, the Patriots' 25-24 win over the Bills was a struggle from start to finish, one that New England was, frankly, lucky to win.

Buffalo expanded the lead they held for much of the night to 24-13 with just 5:32 to play, when Trent Edwards silenced the Foxborough crowd with a 10-yard touchdown pass to running back Fred Jackson.

Finally displaying some urgency, Brady moved the Patriots quickly down the field in the team's two-minute offense, polishing off an 11-play, 81-yard drive with an 18-yard pass to tight end Benjamin Watson to cut the lead to 24-19 with just over two minutes to play.

But New England still needed a major stroke of luck, which arrived on the ensuing kickoff when the Bills' Leodis McKelvin was stripped by Pierre Woods, and the ball recovered by kicker Stephen Gostkowski.

Predictably, Brady capped the comeback three plays later with his second TD pass to Watson in a span of 1:16, and the Patriots held on for a 25-24 lead that made many survivor pool participants from coast-to-coast exhale in relief.

"I'm really proud of the players," said head coach Bill Belichick following the win. "Not that we played our best, but we hung in there. We kept playing, down by 11 with four or five minutes to go in the game and we came back and made the plays we had to make to win. We certainly don't want to put ourselves in that position very often. That's not what we're trying to do. But whatever it was, they dealt with it and made some smart plays at the end. I wish we would have played like that earlier in the game."

What should concern Belichick most was the work of a defense that didn't play horribly, but certainly didn't dominate a young, work-in-progress Buffalo offense that had not looked particularly strong in the preseason. Minus a number of their former defensive lynch pins (Richard Seymour, Mike Vrabel, Tedy Bruschi, Rodney Harrison), the Pats didn't do much to pressure Edwards until sacking him a couple of times on Buffalo's desperation final drive, and also didn't force an offensive turnover all night.

A first-quarter knee injury of unknown severity to linebacker Jerod Mayo isn't likely to bolster the Pats defense any time soon, and New England's linebackers struggled to slow Jackson (140 total yards and a touchdown on 20 overall touches) in Mayo's absence.

And, while Brady (39-of-53 passing, 378 yards, 2 TD, 1 INT) mostly played well in his first complete game since Super Bowl XLII in February of 2008, he wasn't aided to any great degree by a trio of running backs that amassed just 64 yards on 22 combined carries

Brady, who helped Randy Moss (12 receptions, 141 yards), Wes Welker (12 receptions, 93 yards) and Watson (6 receptions, 77 yards, 2 TD) to big nights, made a potentially high-impact mistake when he floated a pick-six into the arms of Buffalo end Aaron Schobel, helping the Bills go ahead by a 14-7 count late in the first-half.

"I felt good all night," said Brady. "We were just off in the first half. The plays that we needed to make - we had a couple fourth downs we missed, we had a third down we missed, two chances in the red area that we were 0-for-2 in the red area, the interception - those things really get you behind the eight- ball, but we recovered with just a couple seconds left. Sometimes it goes like that and I'm glad we came back and won, and being down 11 with five-and-a-half minutes left, it's a pretty special victory."

Though special, the victory wasn't decisive enough to fully confirm all of the preseason prognostications that have the Patriots in the Super Bowl, and there will even be some doubts about the team's ability to defeat a surprising Jets team this Sunday at the Meadowlands.

Either way, in typical fashion, the Patriots are moving on.

"I'm glad it's over," said Brady. "I'm glad we're moving on and I'm glad we got a win. You know, we'll take it. We'll learn from it and we've got to go get ready for a Jets team that played really well this past weekend."

BILLS: Given some of the grim predictions of their impending doom in recent weeks, especially in the time since the firing offensive coordinator Turk Schonert and cutting left tackle Langston Walker in the previous 10-day span, the Bills should be able to find a bright, shiny silver lining in their loss to the Patriots on Monday.

Yes, the Bills should have won the game, and if the Patriots are really a Super Bowl contender, then Buffalo's opening performance would suggest that Dick Jauron's club is not far behind.

The offense should only improve as new play-caller Alex Van Pelt and the team's three brand new offensive linemen get their feet underneath them. The defense gave up 441 yards and had some trouble getting off the field (New England was 10-of-16 on third-down), but Schobel's big play and the fact that the Patriots had only 13 points over the game's first 57-plus minutes suggests that there is plenty of hope there.

Still, it was tough for Jauron to accentuate any of those positives in the wake of another bitter loss, the team's ninth in its last 11 games dating back to last season.

"Nobody gave us any chance, and we understood that coming in, but we didn't come to lose," said Jauron. "We didn't come to play a close game. We came to win a game. So, you know, we are disappointed, we are just disappointed. This is a really good group of guys, so whatever happened tonight...we would've moved on, win it, lose it, we're going to move on. You know, we believe we are going to get better, week-to-week."

Edwards, who was an efficient 15-of-25 for 212 yards and two touchdowns without a turnover in the game, sounded somewhat encouraged as well.

"I really think we need to focus on how well the offensive line played tonight," said Edwards. "I really feel like the three guys [Demetrius Bell, Eric Wood, Andy Levitre] on that group that have never played in an NFL football game before to start on Monday Night Football, week one, and to play the way that they did, I'm still very, very impressed. There were times I was sitting in the pocket taking two, three, four hitches, and still no one was touching me. That's something we can gain positively from it."

DOLPHINS: During the 2008 season, the Miami Dolphins were a surprise 11-5 division winner for a multitude of reasons, not least of which was the fact that they committed just 13 turnovers all year, tied for the fewest in a season in NFL history.

After just one week of the 2009 campaign, Tony Sparano's club is nearly one- third of the way to last year's miscue total, as Atlanta took advantage of four turnovers and dispensed of Miami, 19-7, in Week 1.

"When you turn the ball over four times in this league your percentage of winning is about 10 percent," said Sparano after the loss. "You can't overcome those things in this league. I can't tell you what went wrong, but we don't think turning the ball over is a good thing, that's for sure, and we do pride ourselves on it. But we didn't do it today and we'll work hard at it and get better at it, that's for sure."

One Miami player in the crosshairs after the loss was tight end Anthony Fasano, who lost two fumbles in the defeat and was the intended receiver on quarterback Chad Pennington's lone interception of the day.

"It's definitely not our brand of football and it's something that we're not accustomed to doing and we have to correct," said Fasano. "It's all about concentration and protecting the ball. That's the number one goal when the ball's put in your hands is to protect it and to be able to line up the next play and again that's the number one priority."

Lost in the setback was a relatively strong performance for the Miami defense, which allowed fewer than 300 yards to Atlanta's powerful attack, including just 65 yards on 22 carries for Michael Turner and five catches for 42 yards for wide out Roddy White.

JETS: It has to be difficult for a New York Jets fan to really by into the notion of a "savior" at the quarterback position. Burned by so many signal- callers who failed to get them to the franchise's long-awaited second Super Bowl, it had to be tough for some Gang Green supporters to avoid the feeling that Mark Sanchez was just another in a long line in disappointments that have ranged from Richard Todd to Brett Favre.

That said, though one game does not a career make, you have to believe many are now ready to fully cast their lot with Sanchez.

Beginning his career on the road against the Houston Texans, a trendy playoff pick with at least one elite-level pass rusher, Sanchez was simply stunning in the team's 24-7 rout. Sanchez was 18-of-31 for 272 yards, a touchdown, and an interception in the victory, raising the hopes of the team's beleaguered fan base infinitely.

But it was more than the numbers, as first-year head coach Rex Ryan astutely pointed out in his Monday press conference.

"He did a tremendous job," said Ryan of his rookie signal-caller. "(He) had great poise in the pocket. Mario Williams is one of the premier pass rushers in the game and I thought our guys did a great job. I thought Mark had a great feel for the pocket and was able to step, slide, and do different things to avoid the rush and still get the ball down the field. That was tremendous."

"He had 10 completions, I believe, on third downs for 190-something yards. That's outstanding for a rookie quarterback (It's) unheard of really. That would be nice for a veteran quarterback, rookie quarterback, (or) anybody.

"Our team's got complete confidence in him. Some guys were calling him 'Sanchise' because he's a franchise quarterback. Who am I to argue that? He made a lot of great decisions in that game and showed a lot of poise."

With his Q rating already boosted in the New York metro area following the win, Sanchez's next step will be taking down the hated New England Patriots at the Meadowlands in his formal home debut.

Ryan has not shied away from talking about the Patriots since taking the Jets job in the winter, and it remains to be seen whether the head coach's outward lack of fear will trickle down to his team, and result in a statement-making win.

"I'm looking forward to it," said Ryan of the challenge. "They're better than us in two spots that I know for sure and that's at head coach and quarterback. But, we'll find out who has the better team right now. We'll see."