Orchard Park, N.Y. (WGR) - Drake Maye was having an awful season as the New England Patriots limped into Orchard Park on Sunday with a 1-2 record. Maye had one touchdown pass and six interceptions before he feasted on the Buffalo Bills defense in a 29-26 win. In four games the Bills defense has given up an average of 26.8 points per-game.
Last season Maye came to Buffalo and destroyed the Bills with his passing and running and the Bills must have lost the tape, because he did the same exact thing Sunday. Maye was 22-of-37 for 269 yards and three touchdowns. He ran for 54 yards on eight carries and threw for a two-point conversion.
Josh Allen was able to keep up and gave the Bills the lead at 26-21 when he hit Keon Coleman for a 34-yard TD with 4:27 left in the game. Of course Maye had no trouble getting down field on an eight play, 73-yard touchdown drive to grab the lead back. That left Allen with 1:50 and three timeouts and after a four yard scramble, he tries to play hero ball and threw deep down the field into double coverage to Josh Palmer and Craig Woodson came down with the interception. A dejected Allen said after the game that he knows he should've eaten that last play,
"It was a flood concept, they went man, I made a guy miss and threw one up and I need to throw that out of bounds and live another day.
"It stings, I feel like we hurts ourselves tonight, offense, defense, special teams, we all feel like we could all play better and the division ones sting and it feels like it's a two-game swing and we have to find a way to learn from this and move it to the back of our brain and move on."
Allen was 23-of-33 for 253 yards and one touchdown. He ran for another, but the Patriots kept him contained because he only had four rushing yards.
In my estimation this is the first time this season that Brady got severely outcoached. He said,
"We just didn't get into a rhythm today had a couple of three and outs that can't happen starting with the first drive of the game. We had opportunities to sustain drives with some looks that we know are coming and we weren't executing."
Brady knew that the Bills had a great opportunity to drive down the field and win the game. As far as the last interception he said,
"We have plenty of time right there and I've got to have a better play called in that situation and we've got to protect and put him in a better position to have success.
They get a free runner at Josh which makes it a little tough, I'm trusting that if it's not there, he'll throw it away, so I have to be better and everybody on the field has to be better."
Brady was very upset with himself that Dalton Kincaid only had two targets and one reception for seven yards.
At the end of the day the Bills are still in first place in the East with a 3-1 record, that's one point better than the defending champion Patriots are. This is also Brady's first loss as a head coach. He said,
"It's never OK that we lost so what are we going to do about it? I've always believed that great teams don't have to lose to learn, but we lost a football game and what are we putting out there and are we going to sit there now that we lost and point some fingers? We're still learning our football team with it all and I think everybody in that locker-room needs to sit there and say, 'You know what? I have to be better, if I'm better and I worry about making myself better right now, then we'll continue to improve as a football team', but if the first time that we lose the tendency is 'We've just got to call it this or we just do this' then we're searching for excuses and we're not going to make up excuses or let others make excuses for us."
Next up is a week from Monday when the Bills head to Los Angeles to face the Rams. They stay out there on the 18th in Las Vegas to play the Raiders.
