Patriots Clinch AFC East After Bills' Shocking Loss

E. RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Four seconds left. Buffalo trails Philadelphia by 7. Fourth and goal at the one-half yard line.

Josh Allen muscles his way over the goal line. That was the easy part.

Deciding to go for two, Allen dropped back, looked left, and saw Khalil Shakir getting separation from his receiver going to his left. Allen zipped the ball towards him for the win.

Except…the ball led Khalil too far. Eagles win, 13-12.

Combined with the Patriots breezing their way to a 42-13 win over the New York Jets on Sunday at MetLife Stadium, the Bills’ loss gave the Patriots the AFC East championship. The Jets were easy prey for the Patriots, who scored touchdowns on every one of their first offensive drives before calling off the dogs in the third quarter. Drake Maye threw five touchdowns to five different receivers. If the Patriots got Josh Allen’d two weeks ago, the Jets just got Drake Maye’d.

The only thing remaining that the Patriots can earn is the top seed in the AFC. They need to beat Miami at home and have Denver lose at home to the Chargers next week.

The Patriots had a ridiculously easy time with the Jets. A game the Patriots were supposed to win going away, the Patriots gave new meaning to the terms “going away”, “prohibitive”, and “blowout”. Other than Breece Hall making some hay against the Patriot second team defense, the Jets had absolutely nothing against the highly motivated and focused Patriots.

In what could have been the trap game of the century, the Patriots clicked on all cylinders despite having a ton of regulars missing due to injury. Maye did practically whatever he wanted to do, and his teammates responded in a frighteningly efficient way. Maye finished with 256 yards on 19 of 21 passing, five tuddies and a near-perfect rating of 157.0. Again, these are the Jets, but seldom do you see such a completely magnificent performance like this even against the NFL dregs.

The five passing (six total) touchdowns went as follows:

Austin Hooper – 2 yards, crossing pattern off of a play fake
Rhamondre Stevenson – one yard run off right tackle, Jack Westover with a good lead block
Stevenson – 22 yards, outran down lineman Eric Watts to the left corner of the end zone
Stefon Diggs – 3 yards, quick bang-bang left slant pass
Hunter Henry – 13 yards, wide open on a left crossing pattern
Efton Chism III – first career NFL touchdown, diving catch after Maye rolled right and spotted him

Stevenson had the lone rushing touchdown, but he wasn’t the leading rusher. TreVeyon Henderson had 82 yards rushing on 19 carries. Stevenson had 47 yards on eight carries and averaged just under six yards a carry.

Diggs had a monster game, peaking at just the right time in the season. Diggs finished with 101 yards on six catches. Next was Stevenson with 55 yards on 5 catches.

Maye and most of his mates came out of the game for the second offensive possession of the third quarter. The Patriots stopped scoring at that point up 42-3. A 59-yard touchdown run by Hall was the only score that happened, on the first play of the fourth quarter. Other than that, the Jets had nothing and did nothing.

Maye had 5 touchdowns and completed 90.4 percent of his passes. The last quarterback to have 5+ touchdowns and complete at least 90 percent of his passes in a game was Lynn Dickey with Green Bay back in 1981.

Brady Cook, the Jet quarterback, finished with 19 of 33 passing for 152 yards, one interception and a rating of 56.6. Hall finished with 111 rushing yards on 14 carries; take away his long touchdown run and he had 52 yards and averaged 4 yards a carry. Isaiah Williams led the Jets with four catches, while John Metchie III had 41 yards receiving.

Basically, there isn’t much to analyze about this game. If the Patriots are this good against a horrid team in a trap game, they should be very good heading into the playoffs, especially with more starters coming back (Milton Williams, Will Campbell, and several others). Mike Vrabel did a great job of getting his team ready to massacre the Jets, and that they did.

Next week the Patriots conclude the regular season at home against Miami. They won in south Florida back in September, and they should be solid favorites at home next week. The Patriots should root for brutal cold weather with lots of precipitation. The worse the weather, the more beatable Miami is. This has been an off year for the Dolphins, as they have since replaced Tua Tagavailoa with rookie quarterback Quinn Ewers of Texas. Miami will offer a bit more than the Jets did, but the game should be very winnable for the Patriots if they are as focused as today.

So, there it is. Patriots are division champs, first time since 2019. They are the two seed right now. Win next week, Chargers trip up Denver, and the Patriots have a bye week in two weeks. That’s what it basically comes down to.

See you at Mike’s tomorrow. Go buy that AFC East gear, folks.

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About Bob George

Covering Boston Sports since 1997. Native of Worcester, Mass. Attended UMass and Univ of Michigan. Lives in California. Just recently retired after 40 years of public school teaching. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@thepic4139" rel="nofollow noopener"><strong>Podcasts on YouTube at @thepic4139</strong></a>

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Tags: AFC East Buffalo Bills Drake Maye Hunter Henry Injuries Josh Allen Miami Dolphins Mike Vrabel New England Patriots playoffs Quinn Ewers Rhamondre Stevenson Stefon Diggs TreVeyon Henderson Tua Tagovailoa

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Jimk

5 months ago

Who ever made a case for the jets being a trap game? If you looked at how the jets fared in Brady Cooks 3 games, the only conclusion you could reach is a pats win. The variable was: how big a score differential it would be, and could the jets stay remotely in the game via running the ball given Tonga, Farmer, M Williams being out. Trap game. No.