Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR Sports Radio 550) - Amazing. Simply amazing.
Once again, the Buffalo Bills put themselves behind multiple eight balls on Sunday in Foxborough. And once again, the resilient Bills found a way to pull out a victory from the jaws of defeat.
Although, I wasn't feeling too good about their chances to rally and beat the New England Patriots after they fell behind 21-0 with just under six minutes left in the second quarter.
Yes, there was plenty of time left in the game. Yes, the Bills have the best quarterback in the NFL in Josh Allen. Yes, the Bills have been a terrific second-half team this season.
But nothing was going right in the first 24 minutes of action at Gillette Stadium.
Through the Patriots' first four possessions, the Bills defense was shredded to the tune of three touchdowns and 238 total yards. New England was taking advantage of the Bills' porous run defense with 154 yards on 19 rushes for an average of 8.1 yards per-carry.
Meanwhile on offense, the Bills went punt, punt and punt on their first three drives, while rolling up a grand total of 29 yards.
On top of all of that, head coach Sean McDermott - who was so aggressive in last week's comeback victory over the Cincinnati Bengals - was way too conservative.
On the first offensive possession of the game at the Patriots' 44-yard line, the Bills elected to punt on a 4th-and-5 rather than treating it as four-down territory.
The game actually started to turn on the Bills' final drive of that first half.
The Bills had a short field, thanks to a 38-yard kick return by Ray Davis and a Patriots facemask penalty on the play. Allen took the Bills 42 yards for their first points of the afternoon.
That seemed to wake up the offense.
That was the first of five-straight possessions that ended with the Bills scoring a touchdown. Allen was Allen. James Cook ran like the second leading rusher in the NFL.
The five touchdown drives spanned from late in the second quarter to midway through the fourth quarter. The Bills totaled 302 yards and 19 first downs on 44 plays. They went from trailing 21-0 to leading 35-31.
Allen's play in, what is now, a three-game winning streak has put him back in the thick of the MVP race.
After throwing for just 35 yards in the first half on 6-of-8 passing and a touchdown, Allen was 13-of-20 passing in the second half for 158 yards and another two touchdowns. He also ran eight times for 36 yards.
Credit should also go to the Bills' defense, which looked completely different after the halftime break. They were terrific, and came up with stops that allowed the offense to tip the scoreboard in the Bills' favor.
The defense had one bad play in the second half, which was a 65-yard touchdown run by TreVeyon Henderson.
In the first half, New England scored 24 points and had 285 total yards of offense. Quarterback Drake Maye was 9-of-11 for 108 yards and had 43 yards on four rushes and a pair of rushing touchdowns.
In the second half, the Patriots had five possessions and scored on just one. New England was limited to 100 total yards (65 on one play), went just 1-for-5 on third down and never got in the red zone.
Maye was 5-of-12 for 47 yards and one interception in the second half, and had zero runs.
Matt Milano had one of his best games of the season with a pair of sacks, a team-leading 10 tackles and a forced fumble.
Joey Bosa returned to the lineup and had a key pass breakup on fourth down on, what turned out to be, the Patriots' final possession of the game.
The secondary did a great job on the Patriots' top targets in their passing game.
Leading receiver, and former Bills wideout Stefon Diggs had just three catches for 26 yards. Keyshawn Boutte had only one catch on their first drive of the game for 30 yards. Tight end Hunter Henry had one reception for 18 yards.
The unsung hero of the game goes to Ray Davis, who averaged 41 yards on four kick returns, and kept giving the offense a short field to work with.
The odds still favor New England to win the AFC East, but it was nice to see the Bills prevent the Patriots from celebrating their first division title in six years. For now, anyway.
Maybe all that talk about Maye being in the same league as Allen already and New England being the new "Kings of the East" will go away now.
I'm thrilled the Bills won, but this team is so infuriating. It's so hard to believe how Jekyll and Hyde the 2025 Bills are.
In the first half of games this season, they have now been outscored by 29 points. But in the second half, the Bills are outscoring their opponents by 116 points.
You try and figure it out, because I can't.
Bills notes:
- This was the third-largest comeback win in Bills history, and the largest since 2011 when the Bills trailed Tom Brady's Patriots by 21 point and came back to win.
- It was Buffalo's third win this season when trailing by 10-plus points (Baltimore Ravens and Bengals).
- Dawson Knox had a pair of touchdown catches. His 26 career touchdowns is first in Bills history among tight ends.
- The Bills have beaten New England nine out of the last 11 meetings (not including the finale last season when many starters sat and the Bills lost).
- The Bills have reached the 10-win mark for the seventh-straight season.
- The Bills have given up more than 30 points in four games this season. They are 4-0 in those games (God bless Josh Allen).
- The Bills are 10-0 when scoring 25-or-more points this season.
- In the current three-game winning streak, Allen has 731 total yards and nine touchdowns.
- The Bills are 27-8 against AFC East teams since 2020 - the best division record of any team in the league over that span.
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