The Patriots beat the Bills on Sunday, but Bills safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson wasn’t throwing much credit to the Patriots for the victory after the game.
Patriots wide receiver Efton Chism’s one-handed catch in the end zone with under two minutes to play gave his team a 29-26 win. Gardner-Johnson called Chism a fringe NFL player and doubted that he would be able to do that again while making it clear that he doesn’t put much stock in how the result reflects the two teams.
“We’re not getting into no bulletin board material. An elevated guy made a helluva catch,” Gardner-Johnson said, via Thad Brown of WROC. “Probably won’t hear from him again. Respectfully. I say that with a lot of confidence. because it’s like [Maye] didn’t put his confidence in his best player. He would have thrown to Doubs or somebody, but they won the game. Whatever, they didn’t do s—t better than us. We gotta play better. They can mark that, we’ll be back to see them again. . . . A practice squad player made a helluva play. You do it again, he probably won’t make it again. Simple.”
In reality, Chism has never spent any time on the New England practice squad. Gardner-Johnson’s travels around the league did include a stint on the Ravens’ practice squad last season, which Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel seemed to reference on WEEI Monday.
“For a guy that’s been on eight teams in four years? I mean, I guess he knows the drill,” Vrabel said.
The two teams will see each other again in New England in Week 13 and bulletin boards in both locker rooms may have some references to the back and forth leading up to that one.