The New England team who took the field to start what could’ve been a division-winning game looked the hottest they have all season. And this group entered Sunday on a ten-game heater.
The guys who ran out after halftime? Colder than Jack Nicholson in a hotel hedge maze.
The Patriots learned a tough lesson at the hands of the Bills Sunday: they may have arrived, but they have to keep their play much more detail-oriented than it was in the 35-31 loss if they want to stick around.
See, New England, quietly, has a bad habit of letting teams hang around in games they should have no business being in. Think of the fourth quarters against the Joe Burrow-less Bengals and the Jets. Argued from a statistical angle, their offense entered this week ranked slightly below average in second-half points, and 30th in average fourth quarter points.
So, it wasn’t a total shock when the reigning MVP willed his team out of a 21-0 hole to get within 3 points.
Then, the lead.
And ultimately, the victory.
The Patriots are fallible – and not just because they’re down a left tackle and without Milton Williams, or because Robert Spillane remained on the sidelines in an apparent break-glass-in-case-of-emergency capacity.
Vrabel was the better coach on Sunday. Sean McDermott approached the first half coaching checked-out, letting opportunities like what could have been a challenge on a questionable Kayshon Boutte catch in the first quarter go to waste. But the Patriots’ overall execution was lacking. They’ve now opened themselves up to further criticism of their soft schedule as they look towards the playoffs. Because even independent of New England’s obvious strong play this year, there is truth to the weakness of their opponents and what they’ve been able to get away with, while winning.
Here’s what’s real: The Patriots haven’t had to dance with many boogeymen on the other sideline this season. Maye’s deep shots allow a margin of error for silly little goof-ups and the offense slowing down. Their red zone defense is…lacking.
Yes, the combination of coach and quarterback is the cheat code to building an NFL dynasty. And nobody has accomplished that feat in league history like New England. But in the game-to-game existence of the season, a young team has to find a full game of consistency when faced with greatness on the other side, and Josh Allen is elite.
Maybe that’s a lesson that can’t be learned through victory.
“100%,” Stefon Diggs said in the postgame locker room, when asked when asked whether it’s possible some things can only be learned through a loss. “It’s like a daily dose of humble pie, especially when you’re playing these good teams. And at this time of the year, December is when you’re playing those good teams. You’ve got all those implications. Things can go this way, things can go that way. You just want to go 1-0. If you don’t go 1-0, hopefully you learn from it and it helps you moving forward.”
“The sense of urgency to get things fixed after a loss definitely picks up,” linebacker Jack Gibbens agreed.
The locker room after the game was understandably quiet, but there wasn’t an air of despondency – just disappointment. Players spoke as if they felt they were on the same level as Buffalo, but their 60-minute commitment simply wasn’t there, and that has to feel fixable.
The areas needing improvement in this particular game were obvious, and once again, the offense screeching to a halt in the second half put a damper on everything. Vrabel has preached, “no naps,” but after TreVeyon Henderson ripped off a 52-yard rushing touchdown for the 21-point lead, most of the Patriots looked like they wrapped themselves in Snuggies to bear down until the fourth quarter when Henderson bailed them all out again.
Special teams handed the momentum over to Allen and company with back-to-back lousy coverage on kickoffs, resulting in short field position and back-to-back touchdowns. Defense couldn’t get crucial stops.
And in what could have been a kingmaker moment, on 3rd-and-5 with two minutes left in the game, Maye sailed a ball to nowhere, (it was technically intended for Henderson, but quite out of range of anyone).
What’s clear after this loss, however, is that the Patriots remain self-assured, led by their coach. Vrabel detailed his choice to go for it on fourth down late in the game following the aforementioned botched 3rd-and-5.
“The drive that we needed our offense to get, I was confident, and I thought for sure that we'd take that football and go down and score a touchdown,” he said. “And we just weren't able to. That's why I went for it.”
“We just went toe-to-toe with guys who won it five years in a row, and we just won 10-straight. Our goals and our belief in ourselves isn’t changing,” Gibbens said. “It just sucks not to get this one.”
This game will be the sort that’s either looked back on as an indicator of the team’s limitations, or medicine the youngsters had to take in order to level up. They seem to believe that’s well within their control.