FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Terrell Owens got dressed at his locker, put on his glasses and earphones, and then walked away without commenting on his debut with the Buffalo Bills.

It was a quiet night for the usually verbose receiver.

Owens had two catches for 46 yards in Monday night's 25-24 loss to the New England Patriots, moving into sixth place on the NFL career list, but failing to make much of an impact in the game.

“Congrats 2 the Pats!! On the bus headed 2 airport. Cn't wait 2 get hm & get n the bed!” Owens said on his Twitter account. “We'll b ready next week! I promise u that!!”

Owens, who missed most of the exhibition season with a sprained toe, had only one pass thrown to him in the first half and he dropped it. He caught a 27-yarder in the third quarter to set up a field goal — his 184th consecutive game with a reception.

His only other catch, for 19 yards, came on the first play of the last drive. He also had a 9-yard gain wiped out when he was called for offensive pass interference.

“He's obviously a big-time weapon in our offense and we need to keep getting him the ball,” Bills quarterback Trent Edwards said. “He's a competitor; I've said that all along. And that's rubbing off on the rest of us. That's why we're competing for four quarters there and having a guy like that in the locker room, on the field with us, frustrated or not, he's still raising the level of our game.

“We need to feed off that.”

Owens became a celebrity with his sometimes wacky, often punished touchdown celebrations that sometimes got in the way of the talent that has made him one of the best receivers in history. He entered Monday night in a tie for sixth all-time with Andre Reed with 951 receptions.