Heading back to NE

The Patriots are boarding their plane to head back to Providence, and between now and their arrival at Gillette Stadium, they will find out whether they’ll be playing in the month of January.

After the game, several players and coach Bill Belichick reflected on the accomplishment this team made by going 11-5, regardless of how the rest of this evening plays out. As of right now, the Ravens are beating the Jaguars and the Dolphins lead the Jets – the Pats need at least one of those outcomes to be reversed in order to reach the postseason.

It was a bizarre afternoon at Ralph Wilson Stadium, with the Patriots recording their first shutout of the season, but it still may not be enough.

Thanks as always for checking out the blog today and be sure to catch Patriots Today on Monday here at Patriots.com, regardless of how today plays out.

Heading to the locker room

The Pats are on the way to their 11th win of the season after Buffalo’s 4th down incompletion, and if they close this out, all eyes the rest of the afternoon will be on Jets-Dolphins and Ravens-Jaguars to determine the Pats’ playoff fate.

I’m headed down to the locker room for reaction and will post more later on.

Moss tops 1,000

Randy Moss’ reception on the last Patriots’ series was for 13 yards and puts him over the 1,000-yard mark for the second straight year as a Patriot. He now has 1,008 yards this year on 69 catches.

Light leaves

Matt Light left the game at the end of the 3rd quarter with a shoulder injury and his return is questionable.

Gostkowski prefers the east end

Stephen Gostkowski buried a 23-yard field goal to the same end that he connected on a field goal earlier, increasing the Patriots lead.

NE 13, BUF 0 (10:15 left in 4th Q)

Moss gets his first

Randy Moss just caught his first pass of the game, a 13 yard gain in the first minute of the fiurth quarter, with the Pats driving to around the 25 yard line.

Welker losing receptions lead

Wes Welker came into today leading Houston’s Andre Johnson by 4 catches for the NFL’s reception lead, but Johnson has taken over, and it looks like it will be tough for Welker to catch up.

Johnson today against Chicago has 8 catches for 122 yards, while Welker has just 1 catch. The conditions here in Buffalo, obviously, are contributing to that. With the Pats up by 10, most likely they will continue to run the ball and stay away from the pass, so Welker will probably be behind Johnson when the day ends.

Jordan untouched

We finally have a touchdown in this game: LaMont Jordan ran into the end zone untouched to the right side from 2 yards out to expand the Pats lead. In perhaps the most dramatic extra point attempt that has ever taken place in the 3rd quarter of a regular season game, Stephen Gostkowski’s boot barely snuck through the lower right corner of the goal posts, thanks to the wind.

The TD run was set up by the first catch for a Pats’ wide out on the day (Heath Evans had the only 2 receptions for the Pats to this point). Matt Cassel found Wes Welker open in the left flat, and Welker was hit by Terrence McGee at the 2. Cassel also had a 6-yard run on 4th down to get the Pats inside the red zone.

NE 10, BUF 0 (4:32 left in 3rd Q)

Wes Welker just caught his first pass of the game (no way the Pats could get through the whole game with

Fan taken down

For the second week in a row, a fan has left the stands for the field during a Patriots game. After last week’s incident, which had a fan visit the Patriots bench to hug Junior Seau, this time a fan entered the field at the east end zone, and he was flung around and taken down by a security guard. It took 5 security personnel to eventually secure the “fan” and take him out of the building, causing a delay of about 2 minutes.

Green strip, Pats ball

The first turnover of the game goes in favor of the Patriots: Jarvis Green came around Trent Edwards’ blind side for a strip, with the ball recovered by Mike Vrabel. The Pats have possession at Buffalo’s 43.