ORCHARD PARK – The Buffalo Bills weren’t ready to admit they dodged a bullet Sunday afternoon in their way-too-close-for-comfort 24-21 victory over the New England Patriots, but that’s exactly what they did.
Life as the hunted can be difficult, and that’s what Dion Dawkins pointed to as one of the primary reasons why the 3-12 Patriots pushed the 12-3 Bills right to the final gun and nearly pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the NFL season.
“When you’ve been playing well for a little while, you become the big dogs,” Dawkins said. “You become the ones that everybody wants to come and get, and we’re proud to say that we’ve been in that position. We’ve been the AFC East division champions for a little while now and people are going to punch at us at any chance they could possibly get.”
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The Patriots threw punches, a number of them landed, but though they were wobbled on a number of occasions, the Bills gained their balance and did just enough to win. And I do mean, just enough.
“Didn’t start the way we wanted to,” linebacker Terrel Bernard said, referring to the first two drives of the game where New England moved through the Buffalo defense with alarming ease to open a 14-0 lead. “We made some adjustments and then we were able to play more like ourselves down the stretch there. I think it’s a good learning opportunity for us.”
Here’s the thing: It’s a little late to be learning these types of lessons because in less than a month when the postseason begins, starting a game as poorly as the Bills did Sunday could lead to another ugly end to a season, and Sean McDermott knows it.
“I thought we played sloppy in the first half in particular, and then just overall, we’ve got to clean some things up,” he said. “Second half was a lot better and we controlled the line of scrimmage offensively and defensively with the takeaways. Can’t start a game the way we did, kickoff return and just getting off to an overall bad start. I applaud the guys for finding a way and the coaching staff as well but again, plenty to work on coming out of this game.”
I would agree, and that sentiment is reflected in my grades:
PASS OFFENSE: D
As I’ve said over and over and over, miserable cold is usually never a good thing for an offense, and once again, that was on display in this game. Do you really think Josh Allen would have struggled the way he did, completing just 16 of 29 for 154 yards with a TD and a pick if it wasn’t like Siberia out there? Temperatures like that always affect offense more than defense, and there was never a time when Allen looked in synch with any of his receivers.
Now, part of that was New England punching way above its weight class as its defensive backs won far too often against the Bills’ WRs. Amari Cooper was once again invisible, catching just one pass. Dalton Kincaid’s team-high four catches went for a paltry 15 yards. James Cook’s 26 yards led the team, and he caught Allen’s TD pass. Normally reliable Khalil Shakir caught just two of six targets for 22 yards and nearly lost a fumble.
This was a somewhat alarming performance against a defense that should have had no business being as stingy as it was. It’s tough to rag on an offense that had scored 30 points in eight straight games, but the Bills need to get some things worked out, in particular, Cooper’s role. He had a nice game in LA, but otherwise, his play since he arrived in the trade from Cleveland has been underwhelming. Keon Coleman hasn’t done much either since his return from injury as he had just one catch for 17 yards.
RUN OFFENSE: A-
Without Cook playing as well as he did, the Bills probably lose this game. He gave them the jolt they needed with his 46-yard TD run when it was 14-0, and then he made a really nice catch on the four-yard TD pass from Allen that tied the game in the third quarter, a drive that he got going with a 25-yard run.
Cook was the only player on offense who stepped up and shouldered the burden on a day when Allen was not close to the level of performance he has shown most of the season.
Ty Johnson also came up big with 30 yards on the ground including a huge 12-yard run on the first play after Buffalo recovered an onside kick which helped the Bills eventually run out the clock. The Bills finished with 172 yards and a 6.1 average per attempt. That’ll work in the cold.
PASS DEFENSE: D
Drake Maye looks like the real deal, and that’s awfully disappointing for Bills fans who were probably hoping the Patriots would need a couple decades to find their next franchise QB post-Tom Brady. However, Maye made a couple critical rookie mistakes as he committed two killer turnovers in the second half.
He threw an end zone interception to Cam Lewis late in the third that prevented the Patriots from at least tying the game, and on his backward pass to Rhamondre Stevenson, he was charged with a fumble which was recovered for a fourth-quarter TD by Taron Johnson. Those two plays took possibly seven points off the board, and gifted the Bills seven and that was the difference in the game. Still, Maye was better than Allen as he threw for 261 yards and two TDs while also running for 30 yards.
Buffalo’s defense was battered without Rasul Douglas, Taylor Rapp, Damar Hamlin and Matt Milano for the entire game, and then without Johnson for part of it, so that must be factored in. The first two New England drives were terrible for the defense, as was the last one that cut the deficit to 24-21. And penalties were a major problem as the defense was flagged for eight including an absurd five for pass interference. Kaiir Elam had two of those.
The Bills need to get their starting defensive backs on the field as soon as possible because in two consecutive weeks, the reserves have been shredded.
RUN DEFENSE: C-
The Patriots gashed the Bills in the first half for 80 yards on the ground on their way to 17 first downs. They came into the game averaging 17.4 first downs per game and they finished with a whopping 28. The ground game produced 126 yards by game’s end which helped the Patriots finish with a 379-324 total yardage advantage.
This was really disappointing because the Patriots have one of the worst offensive lines in the NFL, but for stretches of this game they were winning the line of scrimmage.
Stevenson had 60 yards and averaged five per attempt while Antonio Gibson had 28, adding to Maye’s 30. Terrel Bernard had 12 tackles and forced a fumble which Williams recovered and that set up Tyler Bass’ go-ahead field goal in the third. Williams and Cole Bishop each had eight tackles, and Dawuane Smoot forced a fumble.
For some reason, Baylon Spector started in place of Milano instead of Williams. At first it was believed that was because Williams was nursing an elbow injury. He seemed to indicate afterward that wasn’t the case, and he only took over in the second half after Spector went out with yet another injury. Enough of Spector. He is overmatched and if the coaching staff thought he was the better starting option, that’s a problem.
SPECIAL TEAMS: C
The Bills kickoff coverage allowed a 42-yard return on the opening kickoff by Gibson which set the Patriots up for their first TD drive.
In the second quarter, the Bills punt team got beat badly up front on a fake as Dell Pettus took a direct snap and plowed forward on a fourth-and-1 at the New England 23, and converted. The Bills did not seem ready for the play, another fail from Matthew Smiley’s group.
There were two kickoff returns that averaged 23 yards, one each by Ray Davis and Brandon Codrington. Bass made all four of his kicks – a big 50-yard field goal and three extra points, and Sam Martin had two of his four punts down inside the 20.
COACHING: D
The Bills did not look ready to play, and this was definitely a case of them playing down to the level of competition. Considering that they’re still remotely alive for the No. 1 seed, and need to at least lock up the No. 2, it was a disappointing effort. So were the 13 penalties for 78 yards which further illuminated just how sloppy this performance was.
On defense, Bobby Babich had no answers on the first two drives and it was only because the Bills came up with three turnovers that they were able to win this game. This is three weeks in a row where the defense has been poor, and usually Allen and offense bails them out, but Sunday, they almost didn’t.
Joe Brady struggled, too, as he could not get his receivers open. The Patriots did an excellent job mixing their coverages and they had Brady baffled at times.
Sal Maiorana has covered the Buffalo Bills for four decades including 35 years as the full-time beat writer for the D&C, and he has written numerous books about the history of the team. He can be reached at [email protected], and you can follow him on X @salmaiorana and on Bluesky @salmaiorana.bsky.social. Sign up for his Bills Blast newsletter here: https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast
