FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — New England Patriots wide receiver Brian Tyms opened some eyes in the preseason, showing a knack for the deep ball while making plays for New England backup quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo.

He did the same for Tom Brady in his Patriots debut Sunday afternoon in Buffalo, where he caught a 43-yard touchdown in the third quarter of the 37-22 win.

It was Tyms’ only catch, but the young journeyman could be the deep threat the New England offense has lacked in recent years.

“Brian found a way to kind of slither his way through there and get behind him, and I threw it up and gave him a chance to make the play,” Brady said. “Like he has continued to do, he goes up and makes them. That was a big play for our team.”

Coach Bill Belichick enjoyed seeing the young player transition his summer work into regular season game action.

“I’ve seen him do that several times this year in the preseason and it was good to see it today,” Belichick said. “Nice job by Tom creating the coverage — low safety there — and put it up there and give Tyms the chance for the ball. And he made the play.”

Tyms, who grew up idolizing former Patriots star Randy Moss and celebrated his score with a Moss-like celebration, took his touchdown in stride — the same way he got by Bills cornerback Stephon Gilmore.

“Gilmore is really good. I knew regardless if I ran past him, he had makeup speed, so I have to attack the ball,” Tyms said. “That’s just my M.O. I always try to attack the ball. I don’t like to let the ball come to me. There are a lot of good players in this league that can make a play. I wanted the ball more.”

–Brady was added to the injury report last Friday, listed as questionable with an ankle injury. The issue reportedly occurred in practice when he rolled it on the foot of one of his offensive linemen. Based on his performance in the big win over the Bills — four touchdowns, 361 yards, 73 percent completions and a 139.6 passer rating — it would seem the ankle was not an issue.

But according to a report from CSNN.com after the victory, Brady’s ankle was a “significant” issue and the quarterback needed “a lot of therapy” to be ready for kickoff of what turned out to be his best game of the season.

Brady was asked in his weekly Monday morning chat with WEEI radio in Boston if he had any doubt that he’d be ready to play in Buffalo.

“That’s a good question,” Brady said. “In my mind, I never doubt anything.”

–LB Deontae Skinner, an undrafted rookie, earned his second NFL start in Buffalo. Not only did Skinner fill in for Dont’a Hightower, who missed his second straight game with a knee injury, but he’ll also be leaned on more with New England playing the rest of the season without Jerod Mayo.

Patriots defensive coordinator Matt Patricia has liked the work he’s seen from Skinner since the rookie arrived from Mississippi State.

“I think Deontae is obviously still trying to learn and develop in the system, but I will say that he works extremely hard,” Patricia said of Skinner, who earned his first career sack in Buffalo. “He’s a very good athlete — he’s fast, he can run well, he tackles well. So his physical ability out on the field tends to shine through and we just have to keep working to get the fit into the system with everything we are doing. Obviously, he’s just a young player, so he’s still trying to figure it all out and to learn exactly what the situations are that present themselves on the field. I really think he has some good athletic ability, some good ability at the linebacker position and (we’ll) just keep working and trying to get him better.”

REPORT CARD VS. BILLS

PASSING OFFENSE: B-plus — For the second straight week, Tom Brady notched a season high in passer rating, yards and touchdowns. While it may not be back to its best, New England’s passing game is certainly picking up some momentum. Brady completed 27 of 37 throws for 361 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions, earning a 139.6 rating. Brady was sacked twice and hit six times, but he never seemed to be affected by the Bills’ rush. He spread the ball around to a season-best 10 targets, although seven of those had just a single reception. Each of his top three targets had more than 90 yards. Julian Edelman had a game-high nine catches for 91 yards. Brandon LaFell had 97 yards on just four catches, including a 56-yarder that was one of his two touchdowns. And Rob Gronkowski had seven catches for 94 yards. Brian Tyms, in his first game as a Patriot, had a 43-yard touchdown. The offensive line remains a rotating cast of bodies with problems to clean up, but Brady and his targets are beginning to produce as is expected.

RUSHING OFFENSE: C-minus — Coming off a 46-carry, 220-yard performance against the Bengals, New England’s rushing attack just couldn’t get much going against the Bills’ No. 2 rush defense. Even removing a pair of Brady kneel-downs, the Patriots had just 25 carries for 52 yards in Buffalo, including an Edelman end-around for 10 yards. Stevan Ridley had a team-high 10 carries for just 23 yards before leaving with a major knee injury in the third quarter. Brandon Bolden came on in his stead and had just 10 yards on six attempts. Shane Vereen notched only four yards on his five attempts.

PASS DEFENSE: C-plus — Darrelle Revis, the focal point on New England’s offseason upgrade of its pass defense, looks to be rounding into form. The bad news is that the rest of the pass defense doesn’t look quite as impressive. Revis matched up with Bills rookie Sammy Watkins and held the fourth-overall pick to just two catches for 27 yards, the first reception not coming until the third quarter. But while Revis was forcing Kyle Orton to look elsewhere, the veteran passer was finding a way to complete 24 of 38 passes for 299 yards with a pair of touchdowns and a 94.1 rating. He did throw a bad interception to New England linebacker Jamie Collins, but Orton also hit tight end Scott Chandler early and often to the tune of 105 yards on six catches. Robert Woods had a team-high seven catches for 78 yards and a score. New England did sack Orton five times, including three from Rob Ninkovich as well as a strip-sack turnover by Chandler Jones, but the veteran still did enough to keep his team in the game well into the fourth quarter while putting up pretty big numbers. Revis looks like the Pro Bowl player the Patriots were hoping for, but the rest of the secondary certainly has room to tighten things up.

RUSH DEFENSE: B — For the second straight week, the run defense faced a team that wants to run the ball with regularity. And, for the second straight week, the Patriots had an impressive performance. Despite playing without starting linebacker Dont’a Hightower and losing linebacker Jerod Mayo in the first half, New England held the Bills to just 68 yards on 23 attempts. With the game tight, 58 of Buffalo’s 68 yards on the ground came in the first half, and the Bills did little to show balance after halftime, notching just 10 yards on eight attempts. Vince Wilfork moved around well up front and five defenders notched tackles for loss as the Bills never found much efficiency on the ground.

SPECIAL TEAMS: C — When you have a bad snap that leads to a missed field goal from just 36 yards out — your kicker’s first missed field goal of the season — it’s not a great day in the kicking game. Stephen Gostkowski overcame the opening miss, hitting three other attempts (42, 53, 40), and he hit for five touchbacks on his seven kickoffs. New England got very little out of its return game on five chances on punts and kickoffs. Ryan Allen had one touchback and none inside the 20 on his four attempts leading to a 38.5-yard net. It was an average day on special teams aside from Danny Aiken’s bad snap, something that has been an issue for the veteran dating back to last season.

COACHING: B — The coaching staff has been dialing up the right answers schematically and motivationally the last two weeks. In Buffalo, that included making sure there was no letdown and the need to match the emotion of the home team on the first game of new ownership. New England certainly did that and came to play. Offensively, the Patriots have never been a team to run into a stout defense and Tom Brady led a group that took advantage of the weaknesses in the pass defense. Defensively, the Patriots made due without a number of key players and started by shutting down the run and making Buffalo one-dimensional. The Patriots have issues to deal with in the back end of the defense, on the offensive line and with injury replacements, but the coaching staff is working through those issues much better than it did earlier in the season.