As is his style, and that of every NFL coach, Bill Belichick is already onto his next opponent, the Buffalo Bills this Sunday at Gillette Stadium.

This figures to be an intriguing match-up of a contender in the AFC (Patriots) against a team trying to prove they’re NOT a pretender in their own division (Bills).

“A short night here, scrambling around a little bit,” Belichick said. “Certainly disappointing to be that close, do a lot of things well in the game but in the end just not come out with the most points. Tough game, hard-fought game. It just came down to a lot of little things and in the end, they just had a little bit more than we did. We want to take the positives from the game and work hard at doing a few things better, red area offense, red area defense and third down defense and take advantage of our scoring opportunities. If we made any one of those plays, it probably would have made a difference in the game.”

Obviously, one of those plays Belichick referenced was the dropped pass by Jabar Gaffney down the left sideline that would have put the Pats up in the fourth quarter and likely meant victory for the visitors. Asked about the validity of another call, the personal foul on David Thomas after the whistle as the Patriots were driving late in the fourth quarter, trailing 18-15, Belichick said simply, “I could see why they called it.” Other tidbits…

On the performance of Matt Cassel under pressure and on the road: “I think Matt has continued to improve every week since week one. It doesn’t surprise me. He continues to work hard. I think that’s showing up in his performance on a consistent basis.”

On playing the Bills this Sunday and how the AFC East is shaping up with three teams at 5-3 and the Dolphins at 4-4: “Big division game coming up. We’ve played two of the teams, had a very competitive game with the Jets down there and got beat up by Miami pretty good and we’ve kept an eye on Buffalo. They’ve played a lot of teams we’ve played so we’ve seen them to some degree but now’s when we zero in on them. We certainly knew about the Jets and Miami, that’s no surprise.

“I think all three of those are certainly good football teams. We certainly knew about the Jets and Miami, that wasn’t any surprise. The way Buffalo has been built and the job Dick (Jauron) has done there, getting a lot of young, talented players into their team, and how explosive they are in the return game, special teams and offensively, with (Lee) Evans, and all the receivers, (RB Marshawn) Lynch and defensively, with their quickness and speed up front. It doesn’t surprise me that they’ve won five games, no.”

On the adjustments rookie cornerbacks Terrence Wheatley and Jonathan Wilhite made during the game: “As they got more plays and experience in there, I’m sure they got a little more comfortable with the overall pace of the game, the communication, the tempo of it, disguising coverages, trying to play the game at the tempo that the Colts’ offense plays it at and the more you play them, the more comfortable you get doing that. There’s certainly an adjustment process.”

On linebackers Gary Guyton and Jerod Mayo showing their ability to drop into coverage: “Sometimes that involves your guys doing things a little bit differently than they would normally do them because you really don’t have the opportunity to substitute. The way it ended up, our linebackers ended up in quite a bit of coverage on the tight ends and the backs. I think any team that plays them is going to be in that situation a decent amount of the time, too. They kind of force you in that. I’m not saying that we’re uncomfortable with Jerod and Gary  doing that but it probably came up more in this game than it would normally come up.”