Orchard Park, New York — The Patriots’ finest first-half performance of the season came to an end in a 24-21 loss to the Bills at Highmark Stadium in Buffalo on Sunday.
In the first two quarters, head coach Jerod Mayo’s team emptied the clips. New England opened with a six-play, 44-yard touchdown drive. Defensively, they had answers for MVP favorite Josh Allen right on, forcing a punt on Buffalo’s first possession, which led to the Patriots’ surgical 16-play touchdown drive. With the Bills mafia startled, New England led 14-0 in the second quarter. As a big underdog, the Patriots dominated the Bills, outgaining the overwhelming home favorites 127 yards to 11 in the first quarter.Orchard Park, New York — The Patriots’ finest first-half performance of the season came to an end in a 24-21 loss to the Bills at Highmark Stadium in Buffalo on Sunday.
In the first two quarters, head coach Jerod Mayo’s team emptied the clips. New England opened with a six-play, 44-yard touchdown drive. Defensively, they had answers for MVP favorite Josh Allen right on, forcing a punt on Buffalo’s first possession, which led to the Patriots’ surgical 16-play touchdown drive. With the Bills mafia startled, New England led 14-0 in the second quarter. As a big underdog, the Patriots dominated the Bills, outgaining the overwhelming home favorites 127 yards to 11 in the first quarter.Orchard Park, New York — The Patriots’ finest first-half performance of the season came to an end in a 24-21 loss to the Bills at Highmark Stadium in Buffalo on Sunday.
In the first two quarters, head coach Jerod Mayo’s team emptied the clips. New England opened with a six-play, 44-yard touchdown drive. Defensively, they had answers for MVP favorite Josh Allen right on, forcing a punt on Buffalo’s first possession, which led to the Patriots’ surgical 16-play touchdown drive. With the Bills mafia startled, New England led 14-0 in the second quarter. As a big underdog, the Patriots dominated the Bills, outgaining the overwhelming home favorites 127 yards to 11 in the first quarter.Orchard Park, New York — The Patriots’ finest first-half performance of the season came to an end in a 24-21 loss to the Bills at Highmark Stadium in Buffalo on Sunday.
In the first two quarters, head coach Jerod Mayo’s team emptied the clips. New England opened with a six-play, 44-yard touchdown drive. Defensively, they had answers for MVP favorite Josh Allen right on, forcing a punt on Buffalo’s first possession, which led to the Patriots’ surgical 16-play touchdown drive. With the Bills mafia startled, New England led 14-0 in the second quarter. As a big underdog, the Patriots dominated the Bills, outgaining the overwhelming home favorites 127 yards to 11 in the first quarter.
Following a week in which half of a season. outside buzz all around local football program reached a crescendo, Patriots replied with their greatest 1st The offensive play-calling was excellent, and the defense held its own against a high-powered Bills strike. We even saw planned quarterback runs, QB sneaks, and a successful fake punt. The dominant thought for the first two quarters was, “Who are these guys?”
However, reality sank in as Buffalo marched down the field in nine plays to tie the game early in the second half. The Bills scored 24 straight points in a sloppy second half, notably by the Patriots’ offense, which turned the ball over twice, once in the high red zone and recovered a reverse throw.
On the one hand, the Patriots’ sense of urgency in an often hostile atmosphere was enlivening. You may understandably wonder why they didn’t coach with this much urgency sooner. Maybe they’d get a couple more wins. However, my understanding is that this was Coach Mayo’s way of stating, “Hey, everyone, if we were to play a one-game playoff, this is what we would do.” To that goal, Mayo’s crew supplied a better performance.
On the other side, the Patriots’ roster talent did not allow them to maintain their strong start, which is unsurprising. The Patriots offense went more than 40 minutes without scoring and committed two costly turnovers. Additionally, the run defense continued to give up.
This season, they suffered their 12th failure of the year.
New England clearly needs credit for putting the Bills closer than most acknowledged. Many projected a landslide for Buffalo, however the the Nationalists held their own against the current AFC East kings. They deserve credit for it. However, they are clearly undermanned to go four quarters vs a playoff-caliber opponent.
Here are eight lessons from the Patriots’ Week 16 defeat to the Bills, which dropped the team to 3-12 overall.
- SERVPRO Spotlight: QB Drake Maye connects with WR Kayshon Boutte on 28-yard touchdown.
The Patriots’ aggressive first-half approach began with their second opening-drive score of the season, correcting a mistake made the previous week at Arizona.
Following a 30-17 loss against the Cardinals, wide receiver Kayshon Boutte made headlines by criticizing the offensive play-calling. The Patriots’ second-year wideout criticized New England for not attacking Arizona’s man coverage to make the Cardinals pay, despite the Cards playing man 50 percent of the game in the first quarter.
“We realized they planned to play man the entire game. Yet, I feel like it’s ill bred when they go man first quarter, you know? So I feel like we should be better at going after that as opposed to being timid about it,” Boutte told columnists in the post-game storage space in Arizona.
On Sunday, the Bills did definitively exactly the same thing, moving the Patriots gatherers to beat man consideration on New England’s underlying drive. This time, Boutte and Maye didn’t try not to see one man to another. Buffalo was a significant part of the time in a sans man consideration structure, meaning they have a singular high security in the significant focus with corners in single incorporation.
