Patriots Week 16 Report Card In 24-21 Loss To Buffalo
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The Patriots lost to the Bills 24-21 in Buffalo. The score wasn’t surprising, but I, along with many fans and media, expected Buffalo to annihilate them.
What I didn’t expect to see was the way the Patriots came out the way they did in the first half. I kept asking myself, “Who are THESE guys?” This is what we expected last week in Arizona after the bye. They had a good game plan; they prepared well and played aggressively to their strengths.
They jumped out to a 14-point lead and held Josh Allen mostly in check for most of the game. The Bills had scored 30+ points in eight straight games. Allen only had 154 yards passing—his lowest output since the hurricane game with New England in 2021. They held the Bills offense to 17 points in this game.
Even though the wheels came off in the second half, and they had three straight possessions with a turnover, they didn’t quit and kept fighting right to the end, unlike their coaching staff. But you can not turn the ball over three times to a very good team like Buffalo, arguably the best in the AFC, despite their three losses. They’ll run you out of the building.
This was the type of effort we were hoping to see down the stretch. Wins should be strove for. But the entire process of getting a good game plan, hammering out the details in the meeting rooms and practices, coming into the game prepared and ready to execute. Believe it or not, this was encouraging… to a degree.
So, here are our grades this week for the Patriots-Bills game.
Drake Maye was one of two players who also stood out positively and negatively. But overall, his good outweighed the bad. AVP took the training wheels off in the first half, and they had a couple of excellent drives that went for touchdowns because he was allowed to play more aggressively.
His pass to Kayshon Boutte was an absolute dime for the 28-yard touchdown. Great play design, great throw, and fantastic effort by Boutte. Maye finished the game 22-36 for 261 yards (7.3 yards per attempt), with two touchdowns and one (horrible) interception for a passer rating of 90.2.
Maye had another great throw, 26 yards down the seam, to Hooper, who took a huge shot and could hold on. But the interception was a terrible throw in the end zone. I can’t tell if the ball slipped from his hand, but it was far too short and seemed like a wounded duck. Allen had a similar throw that died on him, but his wasn’t picked off. An interesting tidbit that probably interests only me: both Maye and Allen ran five times for 30 yards. Maye had a long of 13, Allen, 12.
Rhamondre Stevenson had another fumble, his league-leading seventh. He was also involved in another fumble that the Bills scored a touchdown on, but the play design was bad, the timing of it was worse, and the execution by Maye was not stellar. I don’t know how they’ll approach his fumbling issues. But perhaps it is time to let Antonio Gibson start.
However, Stevenson ran 12 times for 60 yards (5.0-yard average), including an incredible 14-yard touchdown run and a nice 13-yard pass reception. Gibson rushed 10 times for 28 yards and added two catches for eight more.
The wide receivers were led by Kayshon Boutte, who had eight catches for 95 yards and a touchdown. He showed his a$$ last week, throwing his OC under the bus, and he atoned for that. He showed up prepared and played hard all game, and showed what he could be when he got his act together. That was a good sign for the future. He may only ever be a #3, but if he’s a good #3, then its a bonus.
Demario Douglas had four catches for 33 yards, and Kendrick Bourne had two catches for 18. I love KB’s positive energy, but his running route needs to be cleaned up. Javon Baker was targeted once. No people in wheelchairs were witnessed to be standing. OK, that was harsh.
Hunter Henry and Austin Hooper continue their consistent play. Hooper had four catches for 54 yards, including that nice 26-yarder from Maye. Henry had four catches for 39, including the last Patriots’ touchdown from Maye.
After re-watching the game tape, I noticed their blocking was also good.
The Patriots offensive line continues to give out at the most inopportune of moments. Vederian Lowe, after being a turnstile in Arizona, had a pretty good game overall against Greg Rousseau and A.J. Epenesa, allowing just one pressure. If he could consistently play like this he’d be a good LT, but he has too many games like Arizona.
Trey Jacobs had a really tough game against seasoned pro Von Miller. Mill may not have the juice off the edge he used to, but he can still turn it on. And he took Jacobs to school. Jacobs allowed two QB hits and three pressures. On a couple of reps, he was left holding air. Ben Brown had another couple of bad snaps. Mike Onwenu was good. Layden Robinson is starting to round into form.
The offensive line had some good plays in the running game. But they need to play Caedan Wallace at RT if he’s healthy this week.
The Patriots’ defensive line (and linebackers) were again gashed this week. This sounds like a broken record, but the Bills rushed for 172 yards on 28 carries this week, a 6.1-yard average. Oh my. James Cook did the most damage rushing for 100 yards on just 11 carries, a 9.1-yard average.
This was the strength of the team a year ago. Now, the situation has reversed itself. They don’t rally to the ball well enough, and the tackling leaves much to be desired. How many times this season have we seen a member of the front seven get a hit behind the line, but the runner ends up going for positive yardage? It is too many times to count.
Jeremiah Pharms had a good day, however. He had a sack, a tackle for loss (TFL), and two QB hits, the only two on the team.
The linebackers are still a problem in the running game. All the comments above in the DL pertain to them as well.
However, they did a much better job than expected in the passing game, increasing their grades.
Christian Gonzalez had a terrific game, not allowing a catch in man coverage. Gonzo was covering Keon Coleman, Amari Cooper, and Mack Hollins. He allowed one in off-man.
Jonathan Jones deserved a game-ball for his work in this game, covering the Bills’ most explosive player, Khalil Shakir, who was out of the slot. He only allowed one catch in coverage, and Shakir only caught two passes for 22 yards.
Marte Mapu had some great moments and some not-so-great. He made seven tackles, had an interception in the end zone, had two nice pass breakups, two pressures on the quarterback, and forced a fumble.
But he took a bad angle on James Cook’s 46-yard touchdown and made a terrible decision to leave the end zone instead of taking a knee and giving the Patriots the ball at the 20 instead of at the one. I thought Alex Austin had a nice game and had a nice pass breakup. I love seeing Brandon Schooler get some reps in the “Longhorn package.”
Look when you hold Josh Allen to the pedestrian numbers he had on Sunday, 16-29 for 154 yards (5.3-yard average) with one touchdown and one interception for a passer rating of 67.3, and just 17 points, and you do this on the road in Buffalo, then overall, you’ve had a very good day.
The ST units were okay; Joey Slye was only called on to make three extra points, which he did. Bryce Barringer had a 44.3-yard average on his three punts, but none were returned.
Antonio Gibson was the bright spot and had a 42-yard return on a kickoff. The coverage units were solid.
The coaching staff had a great game plan offensively and defensively this week. They had the players prepared and had them playing aggressively in the first half, which was arguably their best half of football all season.
But they can’t figure out how to scheme up stopping the run. The play-calling got more conservative in the second half.
The decision to punt with eight and a half minutes to go was awful. The team was down 10 points, and you are at the Bills 45. You HAVE to go for it there. It was waving the white flag. But thankfully, the players didn’t quit and made it a three-point game with a shade over a minute remaining.
Then you still have three timeouts: kick deep, use the timeouts, and force them to punt from deep in their end. It’s not an onside kick in that scenario. Ugh, that was awful.
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We’re back to Foxboro to close out the season. This week, the LA Chargers come to town, and Jim Harbaugh has them playing well.
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