Sammy Morris and the Patriots ground out 168 rushing yards, despite the Bills' stacking defenders close to the line of scrimmage all game long.

Journal photo / Glenn Osmundson

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. -- When LaMont Jordan trotted out of what had become a wind tunnel at the east end of Ralph Wilson Stadium and felt the gale-force blasts whipping across the field, he knew he was going to have a busy afternoon.

"When I saw the goalposts turning sideways," he said, "I knew it was going to be a little different type of game."

If the Patriots had planned to throw the ball extensively, as they often do, that playbook was gone with the wind, which was blowing at 40 miles an per hour consistently, and was gusting up to 60.

"We didn't want to put the ball up into that wind," coach Bill Belichick said.

Instead, the Patriots put the ball into the hands of their running backs, Jordan and Sammy Morris.

Together, they combined for 149 yards on 44 carries -- Morris rushing for 85 on 24 attempts, while Jordan ran 20 times for 64 yards and the game's only touchdown. Add quarterback Matt Cassel's three carries for 19 yards -- including two successful fourth-down scrambles -- and the Pats ran the ball a season-high 47 times.

The Bills, who ran 35 times and didn't start throwing the ball regularly until they fell behind, 13-0, early in the fourth quarter, knew New England was going to run the ball. But the Pats still were able to grind out a victory.

"They had nine guys in the box," Belichick said of the Bills. "We usually had only one wide receiver, and ran away from their backside guy, so then it was our eight trying to block their eight. The guys up front did a good job, and the backs did a good job of running downhill.

"The conditions were difficult, to say the least. It was difficult for the skill people to handle the ball. But our guys hung in and did a great job. We took care of the ball."

The Patriots had no fumbles, Cassel threw no interceptions, and the Patriots took care of business.

"This was football weather," Jordan said. "This isn't baseball. We're not going to cancel a game because it's raining, or snowing, or because it's windy."

As difficult as it was to throw the ball in the blustery conditions, it was even harder to kick it -- as Stephen Gostkowski found out when he saw his 26-yard field-goal field goal attempt late in the second quarter get held up by the wind, then blown wide right.

Before the kick, there was a brief delay while members of the grounds crew tugged the wind-blown uprights back into proper position.

"I thought I was close enough to where the wind wouldn't affect it that much," said Gostkowski, who had made 34 of 37 field-goal attempts coming into the game. "Obviously, I was wrong. You can't beat Mother Nature.

"It was insane," he said. "The wind kept switching. I'm lucky I didn't miss all three [field-goal attempts]."

Gostkowski made two field goals with the wind at his back: a 33-yarder in the first quarter and a 23-yarder in the fourth. But he barely slipped his lone PAT attempt inside the right uprights into the wind in the third quarter.

Punter Chris Hanson made what Belichick called "the play of the game" by getting off a 46-yard boot into the wind on the Pats' first possession of the second half.

With New England leading only 3-0 at the time, and backed up at its own 18, Hanson's punt pushed the Bills back to their own 36. When Jarvis Green sacked Buffalo quarterback Trent Edwards and forced him to fumble, Mike Vrabel recovered at the Buffalo 43, after which the Pats drove to their only touchdown, Jordan going into the end zone from the 2.

"It's something you can't prepare for," Hanson said of the powerful gusts. "You just adapt."

jdonalds@projo.com