Going into Sunday, it had been 83 days since the Patriots (11-3) had lost their last game - a Week 3 loss at home to the Steelers where New England gave the game away late.
Since then, it had been 10 consecutive wins, most of which coming against the dregs of the league, allowing the Patriots to vault themselves into the discussion for potentially securing the No. 1 overall seed in the AFC as the team marches towards its first playoff appearance since 2021.
A win on Sunday would have given the Patriots their first single-season win streak of at least 11 regular season games since 2007, as well as their first AFC East title since 2019.
Neither one of those things happened, as New England fell at home for the third time this season, blowing a 21-0 lead over the Bills (10-4) and losing to the five-time defending division champions 35-31.
That division championship will now have to wait until Week 18, as the Patriots must beat both the Jets (3-11) and Dolphins (6-7) in consecutive weeks to wrap up the AFC East title.
And with a tough Sunday Night Football game in Baltimore (7-7) on the docket in Week 16 before the soft final two weeks of their regular season, every game remaining on the Patriots’ schedule is meaningful down the stretch run of this 2025 campaign.
But before we deep dive into the road ahead, it’s important to figure out what the heck happened against Buffalo.
After leading 21-0 with 5:53 remaining in the second quarter, Buffalo would score five touchdowns on their next five possessions, eventually leading to the Bills taking a 35-31 lead with 6:48 remaining in the fourth quarter.
On paper, you could look at that run for Buffalo and say, ‘This is what happens when you don’t have Milton Williams and Robert Spillane on the field for your defense.’
But when you take a wider view, you see an offense that was red-hot to open the game going completely cold when their counterparts on the other side of the football needed them most. With key defensive pieces missing, the offense did not pick up the slack for the full 60 minutes - evidenced by New England possessing the football for just over seven minutes total across the final two quarters.
How does that happen? Is Josh McDaniels to blame?
Mike Vrabel explained during his appearance on Monday with The Greg Hill Show.
“In the second half, it felt like the momentum of the entire game just felt like it couldn't stop in the Bills’ favor,” said WEEI’s Chris Curtis. “And in the first half, the offense had such great play calls. There was the double pass. He had an excellent plan for the Bills, and that felt like it totally went out the window in the second half.”
“You can only run so many double passes that gain 13 yards, you know?” said Vrabel. “I mean, that's cool, and it's cute, but you can only run so many of those before - again, you can only dial up so many of those.
“I'm not gonna sit here - I've never really tried to second guess the play calling. I always think that the best plays are ones that are decisive, and that the players know and that they trust. And obviously there's some better ones, but I don't think there's a perfect call. And so we get back and we look at it, and I'm sure there's always going to be some ones that we're going to want to have back.
“We had it 1st and 10 at midfield, you know? 2nd and 10, then the penalties. It's 3rd and 5, it's 3rd and 10, and it's 3rd and 25, and it's just like that. That's not us. So I don't know what play call is going to fix that, but I do always understand that there's a great balance between the play call and the execution, and obviously the decisions that we make. And there were times along the game that all three of those were really good, and then there was times in the game where those really didn't align, and they weren't very good. And so that's on all of us. That's on the coaching, that's on the players, and where I've always been in this - it starts with me. I know that that sounds cliche, but we want to have the balance and the players trust what we're calling, and that the coaches trust the players, and the players trust each other to do their job.”
“Is there a back and forth in-game, in terms of play calls?” Curtis followed-up. “Like, are you on a splitter where if Josh calls something in, you could sort of jump in?”
“I think what I've always tried to do - yeah, I'm responsible for everything that gets called,” said Vrabel. “But I've also learned that if I don't make a suggestion before they spot the ball, that's really hard to do on a play caller.
“We have multiple personnel groups offensively or defensively. And so for me to say, when he says - I'm not going to get into the personnel groups - let's say it's a two-tight-end grouping with two wide receivers in the back, and all of a sudden he calls for that, and I say that I want another play that's out of another personnel group. Now we've got guys running out to the field. So, again - I'm all for making suggestions, but I've learned that my suggestions need to be done before they spot the ball.
“And that may be, ‘hey, let's run it here out of ‘big people,’’ or ‘hey, let's spread them out,’ or whatever it may be. But I always try to make that, and I think I've learned, I used to do that probably too much in Tennessee, where it was too late, and then it's causing this panic in the play clock. So I'm all for making suggestions. Just have to try to do it before they spot the football in order to give the play caller a chance to get a grouping in there and a play in there for the players.”
How much of this song-and-dance between Vrabel and McDaniels goes on in a given game? That remains unclear. We’ll have a chance to talk with the offensive coordinator during his regularly scheduled pre-practice press conference.
What the case may be, Vrabel and McDaniels will have a chance to get this train right back on the tracks in Week 16 down in Baltimore, as the Patriots are currently 2.5-point underdogs, per OddsTrader. You can get them at +130 on the moneyline, and the total sits at 47.5.
Tune in each and every Monday throughout the football season to Patriots Monday on WEEI. Head coach Mike Vrabel joins The Greg Hill Show at 6:30 a.m. ET, and quarterback Drake Maye joins WEEI Afternoons.