Orchard Park, NY (WGR 550) - I just don't think it would be right not to start this article talking about the Bills defense. The job they did on Tom Brady was nothing short of spectacular. They held the New England offense to just nine points and 224 total yards. The other seven points came compliments of a blocked punt.
There was a time in this game the defense had Brady in four three-and-outs. Brady also led the Patriots on a 16-play, 93-yard drive, but guess what happened on that one? Micah Hyde intercepted Brady in the end zone to stop the drive.
Brady was just 18-of-39 for 150 yards and no touchdowns. The Bills didn't sack him, but had constant pressure on him, forcing him to throw the ball away. Brady was called for one intentional grounding penalty and was hit three times.
Even at the end, the Bills defense stiffened and got the ball back for the offense with 3:09 left.
Not counting the final drive where the Patriots kneeled it out, Buffalo held Brady to three-and-out seven times! There was one four-play drive and a five-play drive. The Patriots had 12 possessions.
New England tried to run the ball 23 times and only had 3.2 yards per-carry. The Patriots only had 11 first downs. It was just a dominating performance in a big game, and it's a shame it went to waste.
The Patriots scored when Corey Bojorquez had his punt blocked by J.C. Jackson and returned to the end zone by Matthew Slater. The pressure came free because both of the outside guys gave New England 10 men in the box. The Bills have a special team coordinator in his first season on the job. A veteran coordinator would tell the punter, if both of your outside gunners are not covered, which was the case here, audible to a fake a throw it to the guy standing by himself. Instead, the Patriots have too many in the box to block and the punt goes for six the other way.
Then there was the other side of the coin. In the first half, Josh Allen and offensive coordinator Brian Daboll acted as if they had never been in a big game. Allen went 5-of-17 for 60 yards to go with a fumble and two interceptions in the first half.
The other part of it is the Bills couldn't find a way to protect Allen. Allen was sacked four times and had pressure in his face all day. It was obvious the Patriots were throwing looks at the Bills that Allen and Daboll hadn't seen on film, and they didn't have a clue on how to adjust.
There were plays where Allen had a lot of time and just looked confused. He took sacks that backed the Bills out of field goal range.
When Allen came out for the third quarter, it looked like they had made the adjustments and finally figured out that instead of forcing the ball into coverage, it might be better to take what they gave them.
Allen started the drive with a nice swing pass to T.J. Yeldon, who picked up 23 yards. He found Zay Jones for three yards, Cole Beasley for seven, Yeldon for 19 more, Beasley for 16 and Frank Gore for one.
On 4th-and-goal from the one-yard line, Sean McDermott chose to go for it and Allen reached to ball over the goal line for a touchdown. It was a superb nine-play, 75-yard drive.
I thought to myself that maybe the Bills had a chance in this one. They are going to stop with the bad decisions and just use precision to get down the field. Nope. Allen went right back to the bad plays and the bad throws after that.
Allen had to leave the game after he was walloped by Jonathan Jones with a helmet-to-helmet hit. Allen didn't move for a minute or two and was obviously knocked out. Jones should've been ejected, but wasn't.
Matt Barkley came in and immediately had a 3rd-and-8 pass to John Brown for 28 yards. Buffalo had two chances to take the lead on this drive. John Brown pulled up on a reverse and threw the ball to Yeldon who had it in his hands, but had in knocked away.
On 4th-and-goal, McDermott made another bold and, in my mind, right decision, but Zay Jones couldn't hold onto a high pass that most NFL wide receivers would've caught.
Jones killed them in this game. On Allen's third interception, Jones just stood there and watched J.C. Jackson pick it off. The wide receiver gave up on the ball and did nothing to prevent the interception. He did the same exact thing on an earlier interception.
Drops are drops, but lack of effort should cost Jones his job, yet he was out there to drop that fourth down play.
There was one player that the Bills had no answer for. Kyle Van Noy had two sacks, three quarterback hits, two forced fumbles and eight combined tackles.
There really wasn't much that separated these two teams except when Brady was having a bad game, he didn't allow himself to be sacked and had one turnover. While Allen was having a bad game, he was imploding. The young quarterback will learn from the experience, but will he get better? I have no idea. After the bad decisions that cost him an interception against Cincinnati, he said he'll learn from it and will never happen again. It only took one week for it to happen again and it was multiple times.
It's way too early in his career to be able to know if he's going to learn. There's a lot about Allen that I really like, so in my mind it's on to Tennessee.
