In one room stood Rex Ryan, the beaten and exasperated coach of the Buffalo Bills. He wore a royal blue sweater vest, a throwback Bills cap and the look of a man simultaneously impressed and infuriated by his opponent. He said, "gosh" and "shoot" a lot, and shook his head as he wondered whether his team could have beaten the Patriots on this day even had it played perfectly, which it very much had not. He came right out and said he no longer felt it was possible for his team to win the AFC East.
"I think it's unrealistic to think you're going to win your division when you just got beat by ... how many games are they up now? Three?" Ryan said. "That team is three games up on us and at the halfway point they've lost one game. And No. 12 is back. So yeah, I don't see that happening. I hope I'm wrong."
In a smaller room, across the damp, chilly tunnel underneath Ralph Wilson Stadium, stood the aforementioned No. 12 -- Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. He wore a blue-gray designer trench coat and the look of a man on his way home after a satisfyingly productive day at the office. He was asked how it felt to be 7-1 at the season's midpoint.
"Coach always says seven wins won't get you anything in this league, and he's right," Brady said. "We have a lot of football ahead. This is when it starts to get feeling like football season."
The NFL's season has progressed to the point in which its teams must confront reality. And that can mean wildly different things for different teams. The two teams that were on this field Sunday head into the second half in two very different realities. The Patriots are where they always expect to be -- inexorably Gronking their way to their 14th division title in 16 years, making sure they do everything they can to get the No. 1 seed in the AFC and home games on the road to the Super Bowl. The Bills are in their own accustomed spot -- right at .500 and watching Brady, Bill Belichick & Co. disappear over the horizon.
It was only Ahab who agonized. The whale just kept swimming.
"It was all business," Patriots safety Devin McCourty said. "We knew we were going to get their best shot, even with guys out. So it was just a lot of focus on getting a win here. We did, and we move on."
The Patriots' reality right now is just about pristine. Brady missed the first four games of the season, as you know, for his Deflategate suspension. Since coming back, he's completing 73.1 percent of his passes, averaging 329.8 yards and three touchdowns per game and has yet to throw an interception. He looks better, at age 39, than he did last season. When throwing the ball 20 or more yards downfield this season, he has a 57.1 completion percentage and four touchdowns. In 16 games last season, he had a 33.3 completion percentage and only two touchdowns.
"I don't think I've ever seen him this hot," Ryan said. "Maybe one other time he scorched me like crazy, but I can't ever remember this kind of a day."
The Bills' reality right now is, for lack of a less loaded term, deflating. When they shut out the Patriots in Foxborough in Week 4, it was their second of four straight wins and the highlight of their season so far. But Jacoby Brissett was the Patriots' quarterback that day, and the Bills' offensive roster was a lot less injury-ravaged. They took the field Sunday without starting running back LeSean McCoy and top receivers Sammy Watkins and Marquise Goodwin. Receiver Robert Woods, tight end Charles Clay and backup running back Mike Gillislee all played through injuries.
That's reality, ugly as it is. Injuries happen, sometimes a lot of them at once, and Brady still plays for the Patriots. Add in an upcoming schedule that features road trips to Seattle, Cincinnati and Oakland, and reality is smacking the Bills around like an angry Buffalo winter.
"It'll be nice one day to sit back and have a full roster," Ryan said. "We've got to get them all healthy, and then we'll be able to evaluate this team a little bit better."
By then, though, New England will almost certainly be too far ahead to see. And the reality is, even if that Week 4 home game remains the only blemish on their record all year, the Patriots aren't going to be looking back over their shoulder at the Bills. Their reality is one of greater goals, bigger plans, more fearsome dragons to slay.
"Just get ready for Seattle," Belichick said, referencing the next team up for the Patriots after next week's bye. "We're heading into the NFC West now with Seattle, San Francisco and the Rams coming up soon. So we'll get a lot of teams we're not very familiar with. Obviously, Seattle, that's a big test for us."
The Patriots left this stadium ready to measure themselves against the Seahawks -- a team they know they might get to play in early February. The Bills carried with them the sad realization that they're not yet in position to dream such dreams. Welcome to Week 8, where reality arrives whether you like it or not.