Play of the game a punt?

The play of today's Patriots game might have been a punt -- and not even the surprise 57-yarder that Matt Cassel unleashed on third-and-8 in the fourth quarter.

It was the punt that set up the game's only touchdown.

Punting into the wind today was almost impossible; the swirling winds made it difficult even to punt with the wind at the kicker's back. Brian Moorman opened the game with a 13-yard punt, and it didn't get much easier from there. Moorman's second punt was better, but he got it too high and the wind knocked it down after 35 yards.

By the time Hanson had to punt on fourth-and-12 early in the third quarter, he hadn't yet had to punt into the wind. (He'd dropped a 35-yarder inside the 20 in the first quarter, but it skipped off the hands of Leodis McKelvin and into the end zone.) He'd only had a chance to watch what the wind did when Moorman kicked -- and what the wind did when both teams' field-goal kickers tried to take aim at the uprights.

But facing the wind earl in the third quarter, Hanson unleased a low line drive that took a friendly hop and went for 46 yards, turning lousy field position -- Hanson was standing inside his own 10-yard line -- into friendly field position. The Bills had to take over at their own 36.

And the Bills had only made it to midfield when Jarvis Green strip-sacked Trent Edwards to force the game's only turnover. Eleven plays later, including a Matt Cassel designed run on fourth-and-2, the game's most brilliant play call, the Patriots were in the end zone and had a 10-0 lead.

Cassel's run was fantastic. LaMont Jordan and Sammy Morris were relentless. But if Hanson shanked that punt from deep in his own end, the entire game might have changed.