ORCHARD PARK — For the first time in his five-game reign as Buffalo Bills head coach, Perry Fewell called upon Trent Edwards to lead his offense.

And was quickly reminded why so many have given up on the once-promising quarterback.

Edwards replaced starter Ryan Fitzpatrick with 9:51 left in the fourth quarter and the Bills trailing visiting New England 17-3. He was sacked on first down, then completed one of two passes for negative yardage before the Bills punted.

Moments later, Edwards was carted off the field with an ankle injury.

The sequence symbolized the demise of Edwards, who was still considered the future of the franchise the last time Buffalo met New England, in the season opener.

Too many checkdowns, too many injuries, too many punts.

Fewell had hoped inserting Edwards would be able to spark the offense.

“We were not converting on the third downs,” Fewell said. “We needed something to give us some momentum so I made the decision.”

Never one of Edwards most vocal supporters, wide receiver Lee Evans questioned the wisdom of changing quarterbacks Sunday.

“I don’t know what really went into the decision,” he said. “It was kind of a crucial point in the game, so I don’t know why that decision was made, but it was made. I really don’t know why.”

Fitzpatrick completed 5 of 9 passes for 77 yards and deft touchdown to Evans after he came back in.

“When I got the word that I was coming out, my thoughts were immediately, ‘Hey, I’ve got to go warm Trent up.’ It’s really a tough situation to come in there standing around for the whole game cold, so I just went over to him, talked to him about what we were seeing, what we we’re seeing.

“Obviously, I was upset. I wanted to stay in the game, but I couldn’t sit there and sulk about it. And then Trent goes down and I had to go back in, and it was almost as if I didn’t come out, that was kind of the feeling of it. I really wish we could have pulled it out at the end.”

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The Bills marched 74 yards on their opening series to the New England 2 but a false start penalty on tackle-eligible Andre Ramsey stalled the drive and led to a field goal.

From then on, Buffalo gained just 172 yards and converted 1 of 10 third downs.

“We had a lot of confidence coming in and the offense moved the ball good on the first possession,” Fewell said. “I give them credit, they made the right adjustments. We just didn’t sustain the blocks that we needed to sustain. We didn’t throw the ball as effectively to keep the drive going, and we just kind of lost focus in my opinion in order to keep those drives going.”

“They did a good job early of mixing things up, caught us off balance a bit,” Patriots coach Bill Belichick said. “But I think we had a little bit better feel for their blocking schemes. In the formation that they were using, they were trying to isolate our inside linebackers in the running game. We were able to handle that a little bit better after that first long drive.”

As has been the case in past meetings, the Patriots found success in moving their front seven around at the line of scrimmage prior to the snap.

“That’s their M.O.,” left tackle Jonathan Scott said. “We’re aware of it, we prepare for it and I believe we had a great game plan for it. We just had some misfortunes with certain calls.”

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Cornerback Terrence McGee was knocked out of the game with an arm injury following a third-quarter collision with Randy Moss. Safety Bryan Scott joined him on the sidelines after taking a blow to the head in the fourth quarter. ... Terrell Owens needed four receptions to become the sixth player in NFL history with 1,000 for his career. He caught two balls. ... Grand Island’s Dean Santorio and North Tonawanda’s Eric Jantzi were among 11 high school coaches honored on the field before kickoff. Jantzi and Southwestern’s Jay Sirianni were named Buffalo Bills/NFL co-Coaches of the Year in Western New York this week, earning their programs a $1,000 donation from the Bills Youth Foundation.

Contact reporter Jonah Bronstein at 282-2311, ext. 2258.