Last modified: Tuesday, September 15, 2009 2:07 AM EDT Patriots' linebacker Adalius Thomas (96) and defensive end Ty Warren (94) celebrate a sack of Bills' quarterback Trent Edwards (5) during the final seconds of Monday night's season-opening victory. Edwards was sacked four times on the night. (Staff photo by Keith Nordstrom) The gift of grab BY MARK FARINELLA SUN CHRONICLE STAFF FOXBORO - Al Michaels doesn't work for ABC any more and hasn't since Monday Night Football moved to ESPN. But never was his signature call - "Do you believe in miracles? Yes!" - more appropriate for a nationally televised game of this stature. Playing in a manner more fitting of the old "Boston Patriots" days - the bad ol' days - the New England Patriots enjoyed a late-game revival Monday and came back from 11 points down with 5:32 left to beat the Buffalo Bills, 25-24, before a deliriously happy full house at Gillette Stadium. Tom Brady turned in his 24th career 300-yard game by completing 39 of 53 passes for 378 yards and two scores, both to redeemed tight end Benjamin Watson, who caught six passes for 77 yards and came up big when it was most needed. "It was a great effort by our team," Patriots' coach Bill Belichick said. "Not that we played our best, but we hung in there and made the plays we had to make. Whatever it was, we dealt with it." It was an absolutely amazing comeback, and highly improbable because for almost 55 minutes of play, the Patriots' veteran defensive line could not make a dent in the offensive line of the Bills - a line that fired its starting left tackle just a few days ago after having picked five new starters in the preseason to begin with. Yet in the final minutes, and down to the final seconds, the Patriots suddenly remembered what it took to win games. It took a magnificent strip - credited to Pierre Woods, but Brandon Meriweather had a hand in it, too - of Bills' kick returner Leodis McKelvin at the Buffalo 31 on the kickoff immediately following an 18-yard TD pass from Brady to Watson with 2:06 left. The most improbable soul of all, kicker Stephen Gostkowski, came up with the recovery to put the Patriots in business at the Bills' 31. "We got the fumble out on the previous kickoff and we just didn't get it," Belichick said. "You're always looking to pull it out at the end of the game." The poise that had eluded Brady to this point was back in a flash. A 6-yard pass to Randy Moss (his 12th of the game, tying a career high) and a 9-yarder to Wes Welker (12 catches, 93 yards) over the middle was followed by a laser beam to the post from 16 yards out, where Watson eluded linebacker Keith Ellison and made the diving catch for the go-ahead score with 50 seconds left. "It was the same play and the same coverage," Brady said, alluding to Watson's earlier TD catch, "and the safety really squeezed him on the second one. I told him it was the best catch I've ever seen him make, and hopefully there will be a lot more of those." Brady's pass to Moss for the extra points was slapped away by Terrence McGee, and there was a lot of time left for Trent Edwards (15-25, 212 yards, two TD) to get the Bills into position for a game-winning field goal. After a 19-yard pass to Terrell Owens (just two for 46 yards), the Patriots' pass rush suddenly emerged as a game-changing force. Pressure on Edwards forced him out of the pocket on the first play and Derrick Burgess smothered him at the line of scrimmage. Mike Wright's pressure on the second play forced a hurriedly-thrown incompletion, and on third-and-10 at the Bills' 40, Burgess and Tully Banta-Cain chased Edwards down and Banta-Cain finished him off for a 10-yard sack with just a second to go. The Bills almost made that one tick count - they executed one of those "Stanford Band" plays where Edwards threw to Derek Schouman for 23 yards and the Bills started flipping the ball around to keep it alive. But after two laterals and a fumble, newcomer Leigh Bodden finally smothered Roscoe Parrish at the Patriots' 44 as time expired. The Patriots' play at the finish was a far cry from how they started the game. From a missed 41-yard field goal by Gostkowski in the first quarter that turned into the Bills' first score (Edwards to Shawn Nelson for 11 yards with 2:58 left), to an interception by Aaron Schobel and 26-yard return for a score in the second quarter that negated a comebacking 1-yard TD run by Fred Taylor earlier in the quarter, the Patriots seemed a day late and a dollar short on just about everything they did. Amazingly, the Patriots finished with a 63-percent third-down completion rate (10-16), but red-zone struggles forced them to settle for a 20-yard field goal by Gostkowski at the end of the half. "I felt good all night, we were just off," said Brady. "The mistakes we were making, those things really get you behind the eight ball." "I was a little nervous I'm not going to lie," said Moss (12 catches, 141 yards). "It's the first game of the season, but I settled down and it looked like everybody settled down definitely in the second half and played football." Even with signs that things were improving, the Patriots still couldn't dent the Bills' lead. A failed throw to Welker on a fourth-and-2 play at the Buffalo 36 ended a promising 13-play possession midway through the third quarter. Rian Lindell added a 40-yard field goal for Buffalo with 2:32 left in the third quarter, matched by Gostkowski's 28-yarder seven plays into the fourth quarter. And when Edwards threw a 10-yard TD pass to Fred Jackson (15 carries, 57 yards; five catches, 83 yards) just five plays after a 10-yard sack by Adalius Thomas was negated by a roughing the passer penalty (Thomas executed a perfect wrestling takedown to get Edwards to the turf, a no-no), it seemed as if the Patriots were out of range. "We settled down came out and started executing our game plan," Moss said. "I'm not making an excuse it is what it is, but we really had to settle down and start playing football the way we know." Throwing from shotgun and in the no-huddle on every play, Brady marched the Patriots from their own 19 to the Bills' 18 in 10 plays, completing eight passes for 63 yards before finding Watson to draw back within five points. "That was as close as it gets," a relieved Brady said afterward. "We put ourselves in that position, and there are plenty of things to learn from before we have that emotional game (Sunday in the Meadowlands) with the Jets." MARK FARINELLA may be reached at 508-236-0315 or via e-mail at mfarinel@thesunchronicle.com. Read Farinella's blog, "Blogging Fearlessly," at thesunchronicle.com/farinella.