The Patriots had a bit of a coming out party on Sunday night in the 23-20 win over Buffalo. They are not yet one of the better teams in the league, but tonight in front of a national television audience against the last undefeated team in the league (who is a juggernaut), they went toe-to-toe in a sometimes ugly game but showed the mettle of their coach. They never stopped playing hard, and tonight it was enough to come away with a big team win.
Andy Borregales nailed a 52-yard field goal with 15 seconds left to win it. That kick would have been good from 65.
For a team that went back-to-back 4-13, this was a huge stepping stone in the quest for a return to respectability. Look, the Bills are still the cream of the crop in the AFC. They are still a better overall team, but what was the big takeaway of the night, was that when the teams face off, the Bills need to bring their A-game, tonight they didn’t, and the Patriots were able to pull off a big upset.
Maye, Diggs, Have Themselves A Night:
Drake Maye and Stefon Diggs had another fantastic game together, the duo had a fantastic game a week ago against Carolina, and topped it off with an even better one tonight. Maye had his moment of looking like young Josh Allen against the man himself. Josh McDaniels had Maye rolling out to his right to negate the Bills pass rush. And the results, especially with Diggs was incredible to watch.
Diggs caught 10 passes for 146 yards and several were of the OMG variety, the toe drag in front of Buffalo’s bench was an absolute beauty. Many fans don’t like the diva #1 WRs because of their antics about always wanting the football. Tonight, Diggs showed why those #1 WRs earn the big bucks.
The just-another-guy WRs don’t make the plays he did all night.. He’s the first Patriots’ WR since Julian Edelman in 2019 to have back-to-back 100-yard games. He was a man on a mission tonight and it showed. So, was his quarterback.
Maye Is Beginning To Become “The Guy”:
Maye in the first half was 9-16 for 89 yards, and was a bit jittery, but in the second half, when both offenses came alive, he was 13-14 for 189 yards. The fourth quarter? Maye was 6-6 for 90 yards. That is the kind of stuff you look for in a quarterback on the rise. And he’s rising.
This was a Josh Allen-type of moment. In a close back and forth game, Allen brought his team back from 10 points down in the fourth quarter. Your QB gets the ball back with a chance to win the game.
The stiff arm on Daquan Jones and throw to Diggs for a first down on the final scoring drive was incredible. Maye finished 22-30 for 273 yards, 0 TDs, 0 INTs for a passer rating of 101.1. The Patriots’ two touchdowns were short runs by Rhamondre Stevenson.
He and Josh McDaniels are getting their act together. We said back in the summer that it may take awile, now, we’re seeing the duo beginning to gel. Having someone as talented as Diggs on the receiving end, makes it better.
Tonight was Maye’s 17th career start. So, this was essentially the end of his rookie season. He was fantastic last week, but that was Carolina. But this was against one of the best teams in the league, on the road.
Running Game Woes Continue:
They have to find a way to get the running game going to get the offense to the next level. Buffalo entered the game as one of the worst run defending teams in the league. Are they that bad? No, but the running backs (sans Drake Maye) ran 19 times for 59 yards. That’s only about three yards per carry.
And that isn’t going to be good enough. It has to get better, but they suffered what appears to be a huge loss when Antonio Gibson went down with what appears to be a season-ending injury.
Terrell Jennings is on the practice squad, but he isn’t going to be a major option. So, they are going to have to look elsewhere.
Patriots Showed Some Mental Toughness:
They fought hard all game long, made far too mistakes but was able to overcome them when the game was on the line. This win served notice that this team will be a royal pain in the A$$ to their opponents every week.
Prior to the game, with the game on Sunday Night Football, the Bills in their white uniforms, the crowd mostly dressed in white, waving white towels, it was one of those game atmospheres where one would hope that the Patriots could survive the early onslaught and not make too many mistakes.
But tonight it was the Bills who came out sloppy, with two turnovers and five penalties in a first quarter that very un-Bills like. However, the Patriots couldn’t take advantage of these early Buffalo miscues and led just 3-0 after the first quarter, and despite having a first and goal at the one-yard line (with just a few ticks left in the half) 6-3 at the half.
Defense Was Good Enough:
We all know how good Josh Allen is, the Patriots didn’t get a lot of pressure on Allen, but they hung tough and had a gritty, impressive game. They took away the Bills explosive plays, although they didn’t have an answer for Dalton Kincaid who was very impressive tonight (six catches 108 yards), but the coverage held up well.
The defense only played man coverage for 37 percent of the snaps, which considering they were playing Allen, was a good number. They did a good job of covering Khalil Shakir (six catches, 45 yards) and Keon Coleman (4 catches, 23 yards and a TD) all night. It was very competitive, Allen had all day to throw, but there wasn’t a lot of wide open chunk plays.
A lot of that has to do with Christian Gonzalez being back in the lineup. Contrast this to the first few games of the year when chunk plays were happening all over the place. When they face a QB who isn’t the threat to run like Allen is, their man coverage rate will increase and the defense will improve even more so.
While Buffalo ran for 118 yards tonight, it was far below their average and in this game, the Patriots took James Cook out of the equation. He had 15 rushes for 49 yards (3.3-yard average). Allen did most of the damage with 53 yards rushing.
What’s Next?
The Patriots won a huge SNF game tonight but the message this week will be, it will all be for naught if they go to New Orleans and lay an egg. The Patriots have winnable games for the next few weeks with going to New Orleans, at Tennessee, and home against the Browns.
But they’ll need to play this kind of inspired football.
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A former US Army Special Forces NCO and Officer, Steve has been following the Patriots since their days at Fenway Park. Steve has worked in the film industry and wrote as an Military Editor at SpecialOperations.com, 1945.com as a reporter for the Millbury Daily Voice, Millbury-Sutton Chronicle, and the Grafton News. He's also a member of the Pro Football Writers of America (PFWA)
The pats won that game with grit and unity. Awesome. But despite the fact that the oats lost the line of scrimmage battle most of the game. Couldn’t run much. Maye made low odds positive plays with the bill pass rush caving in on him. And defensively, the pats did well but Allen sat in the pocket and bought time easily when any pressure came. But hey the pats are still a work in progress and that bills team is to me the best team in the league.