FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — An instant after a violent collision on Saturday evening in the pivotal, hard-fought game between New England and Buffalo, Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman lay motionless on the turf as if unconscious. It was, Edelman said hours later, a ruse. When he slammed into Bills defensive back Jordan Poyer while running a crossing route early in the third quarter, he had committed offensive pass interference — and Edelman knew it.

“I was trying to sell it,” a smiling Edelman said of his playacting on the turf. “Hopefully, they didn’t see it.”

Instead, Edelman was almost hit in the stomach by a penalty flag thrown by an official for the infraction. Edelman immediately rose from the Gillette Stadium turf to see that his wrongdoing would also nullify a Patriots touchdown pass to Benjamin Watson. Not only that, but Edelman was forced to miss a quarter of the game while he was examined and observed for a head injury that Edelman admitted he had faked.