The Patriots were a heavy underdog Sunday afternoon at Gillette Stadium, but New England surprised the Bills and the grateful home crowd with its best performance of the year in a comeback 29-25 win over Buffalo.
No more moral victories: Patriots upset Bills!
New England started fast for a change, taking the opening possession to a field goal for a 3-0 lead before turning a Jabrill Peppers’ interception into a short drive to a shorter Ezekiel Elliot touchdown. The teams went to halftime with the home squad leading 13-3.
Things got really interesting in fourth quarter as the Bills not only pulled to within 22-17 on a great catch, get-up-and-run touchdown from Josh Allen to Stefon Diggs but took the lead following a Kendrick Bourne fumble.
But trailing 25-22 with 1:58 to play, Mac Jones drove to a 1-yard Mike Gesicki game-winning touchdown that left the quarterback and his tight end excitedly and awkwardly Griddy-ing their way around the end zone.
The exhilarating, entertaining win improves the Patriots to 2-5 on the season, while Buffalo fell to 4-3. It was also the 300th career regular season win for Bill Belichick, joining Don Shula and George Halas in the exclusive club.
Before turning the page to next Sunday’s trip to Miami to take on the Dolphins, here are the many highs and limited lows from the Patriots’ best all-around performance of the season.
Thumbs up
Mac Jones – Jones was solid throughout, but more importantly he made the plays needed for the win with the game on the line. He put together the two-minute drive to victory against a good opponent that many thought he wasn’t capable of. He got a nice boost from a Rhamondre Stevenson on 34-yard catch-and-run. Then he hit efficient throws to Hunter Henry, Stevenson and Demario Douglas before the score to Gesicki. Overall Jones finished completing 25 of 30 passes 272 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions for the 126.7 passer rating. He had a very good day and a great final drive to victory that he and his team very much needed.
Jabrill Peppers – For the second week in a row, Peppers made a huge impact on the early defensive action for New England. This time it wasn’t a trademark big hit but rather Peppers dropped into zone coverage and picked off Allen’s first pass of the day. Peppers is now responsible for 3 of 4 Patriots turnovers this season, his first interception of the season helping the home squad build a rare early lead. He also finished second on the team with eight total tackles on a day when some of his teammates struggled with their tackling.
Ezekiel Elliott – One thing everyone knew when Elliott arrived in New England was that he probably still had a nose for the end zone. After all, he did have 12 rushing TDs in his final down season in Dallas. The powerful veteran proved that once again closing out a short field following a turnover with a 2-yard touchdown, breaking a couple tackles to give the home team the early 10-0 lead. This came a week after Elliott had a Wildcat TD run in Las Vegas. It wasn’t a great day for the ground game, but the early score was a key factor early on in the victory.
Demario Douglas – Though he’s struggled to stay healthy and on the field at times, the sixth-round rookie has been a fan favorite and media talking point dating back to training camp. Sunday, returning from a one-game absence to a concussion, Douglas showed why. He had a 9-yard catch on the first play of the day. He had catches of 10 and 16 yards on New England’s second possession, a drive to a short touchdown run. Douglas showed his versatility with a 25-yard punt return in the second quarter. Douglas had a 20-yard gain on a Jet sweep in the third quarter. All told the quick young receiver caught four passes on six targets for 54 yards, including setting up the game-winning TD.
Bryce Baringer – One of New England’s most consistently productive players through the first two months of at times bad football, Baringer had another nice day against Buffalo. The sixth-round rookie had a 64-yard bomb in the second quarter, that set the Bills up at their own 13 after a nice Brenden Schooler tackle. Then, in the closing seconds of the first half, Baringer put a 46-yard boot out of bounds at the Buffalo 3 to ensure the visitors couldn’t steal any points before the half.
Pass rush – Even with Matthew Judon on IR and Josh Uche inactive, New England put one of its better efforts of the season together in terms of the pass rush. Allen was pressured on 10 of his 17 first half dropbacks according to CBS. Christian Barmore was active up front once again, picking up a sack. New England had six QB hits spread among six different players, as the front kept Allen on his toes more often than not and forced him to try to throw on the run pretty regularly.
Thumbs down
Kendrick Bourne – New England’s best veteran receiver in recent weeks cost his team mightily in the game on Sunday at Gillette. With the Patriots clinging to a 22-17 lead with just more than five minutes to play, Bourne fumbled the ball away to the Bills after a catch-and-run at the Patriots 29-yard line. Buffalo was in the end zone a couple plays later to take the three-point lead. Bourne did otherwise have a productive afternoon with six catches for 63 yards and a touchdown. Thankfully for Bourne, Jones and the rest of the offense was able to pick him up and keep his mistake from being a losing one.
Joe Cardona – The long snapper has been too inconsistent all season. That included a second quarter low snap to Baringer, although the rookie hauled it in for his impressive kick to inside the Bills’ 5. Unless Cardona is dealing with an injury – and he’s not been on the extensive New England injury report – there is no excuse for the inconsistencies of his snaps this season.
Jack Jones – The second-year cornerback’s first game back from IR wasn’t a great one. That was especially true on consecutive plays in the third quarter. On the first, Jones was juked out of his jock by Bills’ backup receiver Deonte Harty to pick up a first down. On the next snap Jones was flagged for a roughing the passer call on a high hit to Allen, who sold the hit to steal the flag. It probably was a bad call, but Jones’ coming in high on the star QB opened the door for the bad call to happen. The Bills took advantage of the help and closed the drive with a short TD pass to close the lead to 13-10 New England early in the third quarter. Jones did his best to redeem himself with a big hit/tackle on Diggs in the fourth quarter for a third-down stop that set up the defense for a fourth-down stop.
Missed tackles – Jack Jones wasn’t the only guy to miss tackles for the Patriots defense, far from it. Kyle Dugger, Ja’Whaun Bentley, Myles Bryant, Adrian Phillips and others all struggled in the tackling area to give Allen and the Bills’ skill position players extra yards and, at times, extra plays via first downs. It was part of what allowed Buffalo to come back in this one.
QB management – The way the Patriots have handled the QB position behind Jones this season has been a lot of things. Confusing. Inconsistent.
Irresponsible. Dangerous. Confounding. And that continued against the Bills. A week after Malik Cunningham was the backup to Jones in Las Vegas, the undrafted rookie was inactive. Bailey Zappe was back in the backup role. Will Grier was dressed as the emergency QB. From cutting all the QBs at the end of camp, to running different bodies through the roster and practice squad, to the curious role of the ill-prepared Cunningham against the Raiders, the Patriots QB management has been tough to digest this fall. Luckily Jones once again not only stayed healthy but also had one of the best games of his pro career.
Thank you to MacFarlane Energy, a Mitsubishi Diamond Elite contractor, and the home heating oil and HVAC company that greater Boston and Cape Cod depend on at MacFarlaneEnergy.com.