But beat him Grant did. He fought Lee toe-to-toe, kept him on the defensive, robbed him of the initiative, and finally bottled him up in Petersburg.
As for Lee, he lost pretty convincingly up at Gettysburg, to an army of roughly equal size, and to a general that few would consider his equal. In fact, Lee lost to inferior generals to end both his campaigns in the North.
Lee had a bad week. No question about it.
But he had lots of help. Virtually all of his chief subordinates let him down: Stuart, Hill, Heth, Ewell...and (albeit not to the extent Early argued) Longstreet.
And being on the defensive, Meade had very little to do. It was left to subordinate commanders to simply stand firm at critical moments. Most of the credit, such as it is, goes to Buford, Reynolds, Hancock, Hunt, Custer, and Chamberlain.