There have been a number of frustrating losses by the Buffalo Bills to Tom Brady, Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots over the years.
This latest one is in the mix for number one on the list.
The Bills defense probably played one of the best games any defense has ever put together against the greatest quarterback of all-time. Brady and the Patriots offense produced one touchdown and one field goal in 12 drives. Brady's quarterback rating of 45 was his lowest in a game since 2006. The 11 first downs by New England were the second fewest by a Brady led offense, ever! However, the Bills still managed to lose the game.
While there were a number of reasons for that, the main culprit was quarterback Josh Allen. There's no other way to put it other than the Bills' second-year quarterback absolutely killed them. Now Allen isn't the first young quarterback to look bad against a Belichick coached defense and he won't be the last, but his numerous mistakes were the biggest factor in this defeat. Allen again tried to make too many "hero" throws and it came back to bite him.
In the first quarter, he attempted a deep throw for John Brown at the right hash, but Allen apparently didn't see the safety in the middle of the field who came over for the pick. In the second quarter, Allen threw off his back foot with a pass rusher coming and just lofted a ball up for Zay Jones, but it too was intercepted. The worst of his three interceptions came in the third quarter when he was flushed out of the pocket and while running to his right, he chucked the ball some 30 yards upfield to Jones, who was in traffic by the Bills' sideline. It was picked off and the Patriots began their drive at the Bills' 42-yard line. New England would end up getting a very important three points on that drive.
That play was bad on multiple levels. He should never have attempted the deep throw to begin with. Allen had Yeldon in the left flat as the play began and had Brown open over the middle on a crossing route. However, he went for the big play instead of taking what the defense was giving.
Ironically, Allen did a great job with that exact approach earlier in the third quarter as he engineered a 75-yard touchdown drive. He was getting the ball out quickly and throwing mostly short passes while going 6-of-6 for 69 yards. Even if Allen had committed to Jones as his target, he should have thrown the ball out of bounds and lived to play another down. That turnover came on a first down play, so an incomplete pass was no big deal at that point.Allen made bad decisions throughout the game as he had targets open on short routes, but opted for longer pass attempts. Allen continues to struggle in protecting the football when he runs. Allen fumbled on one of his scrambles, but the Bills recovered the ball. Still, it was his 13th fumble in 15 career starts, although I'm guessing the majority of those have probably been on strip sacks.
Speaking of sacks, Allen took a couple that might have cost the Bills points. Facing a 3rd-and-9 at the New England 35-yard line, Allen had plenty of time to throw, but held on to the football. He moved to his right and was taken down by Jamie Collins for a loss of seven yards. If he just throws the ball away, perhaps the Bills try a 52-yard field goal from Stephen Hauschka, but the Bills punted after the sack.
Just before halftime, the Bills had a 3rd-and-10 at the Patriots' 26-yard line. Allen was sacked for a loss of five yards. Hauschka came on for a 49-yard field goal attempt, which is well within his range, but he missed. It appeared to have a late hook, so maybe it would have been good if it had to travel five fewer yards.There is plenty of blame to spread around from this game to anyone other than the defense.
The Bills' offensive line struggled against the opposing pass rush for a second straight game. Left tackle Dion Dawkins took two penalties that wiped out, what would have been, a first down for the Bills. Jones didn't make any effort at all on the Allen interception in the third quarter, and there were a handful of throws that were challenging, but catchable and Bills' receivers didn't come up with enough of them. In addition to Hauschka's missed field goal, special teams gave up a blocked punt that New England returned for, what turned out to be, a huge touchdown. Cory Bojorquez may have punted himself off the team with 21-yard boot. It was his second punt under 25 yards in four games.Sean McDermott had two questionable challenges and lost both, and the Bills continued a season-long trend of blowing timeouts. They had none left for the last 14-and-a-half minutes of the game, and had no choice but to take a delay of game on 2nd-and-goal at the Patriots' five-yard line with the play clock running out. I'll leave you with a positive thought though.
I'm not into "moral victories" over New England, because we've gone down that road before, but this game should solidify your belief that the Bills can make the AFC playoffs this season.
The defense was magnificent and will keep them in every game. Basically, the offense just needs to be average, or at least don't kill the team and they should be able to get to 10 wins. New England is easily the toughest opponent on their schedule, and this game was very much there for the taking. If you just cut the turnovers/mistakes down by a couple, the Bills probably win. As much as New England means to everybody, the Bills have a huge game at Tennessee next week. If they can beat the Titans (who might also be in the wild card mix), the Bills should be no worse than 6-2 at the mid-point of the schedule following a three-game homestand against the Miami Dolphins, Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Redskins.
Hopefully that reduces your anger/frustration level.
