Mike Vrabel summed it up simply.
There was a reason why Josh Allen was able to bring the Bills back from down three scores and prevent the Patriots from securing their first division title in years. Several, actually.
“He’s 6-foot-5, 250 pounds, runs fast, hard to tackle, hard to get down on the ground,” Vrabel explained. “He has an accurate, strong arm. I’m giving you a dissertation on a league MVP. Just watch all the games and know that it’s the same as it was last week. … That’s why they drafted him and pay him $60 million. I don’t know what to tell you.”
Great as Allen was, the Patriots were still complicit in their 35-31 loss on Sunday.
Let’s get to the how and why in this week’s What We Learned…
Run defense questions persist
The Bills averaged 6.9 yards per play in the second quarter. They scored on five consecutive drives beginning with their last series of the first half. They went 8-for-14 on third down and 5-for-6 in the red zone.
The Patriots had a variety of issues on the defensive side of the ball, including the fact that they were once again guilty of possessing a leaky run defense. James Cook, one of the top backs in the league, averaged 4.9 yards per carry. The Bills averaged 4.5 yards per carry as a team and picked up 168 yards on the ground with some help from Allen’s 48 yards on 11 attempts.
Perhaps their front was worn down due to Buffalo’s time-of-possession dominance (35:21 to 24:39), particularly in the second half. The Patriots went three-and-out twice, four-and-out once, and they had a highlight-reel, one-play scoring drive of 65 yards.
That explosive TreVeyon Henderson run — led by an eye-opening Drake Maye block 50 yards down the field — gave the Patriots a 31-28 lead. But it put the Patriots defense back on the field quickly, and seven plays later, the Bills were back in the end zone on an 11-yard run by Cook.
Going into the game, the Patriots were 31st in the NFL in EPA allowed per attempt — ahead of only the Giants — and they’ll be tested again next week against a Ravens offense that just rushed for 189 yards in a shutout win over the Bengals.
Pressure on Allen lacking
The Patriots sacked Josh Allen twice in the first half, seemingly confusing him at times and forcing him to hold onto the football. In the second half, however, he was mostly unbothered.
One moment in particular seemed to highlight their inability to produce the kind of “coordinated” rush Vrabel said he was looking for in the week leading up to the game. With 10 minutes left in the game, and the Patriots leading 24-21, Allen stepped up into a vacated right side of the line of scrimmage and had plenty of time and space to find Dawson Knox for a 14-yard touchdown.
On the play, edge defender Harold Landry rushed hard toward the middle of the line without anyone looping in behind him to secure the edge. Landry later said that there was a “miscommunication” up front, according to Taylor Kyles of CLNS.
The Patriots had three more miscues defensively that led to drive-extending penalties. Craig Woodson (hold), Carlton Davis (pass interference) and Marcus Jones (pass interference) were all flagged on scoring drives.
In the second half, Allen went 4-for-5 on third and fourth down for 94 yards and a touchdown. The Patriots didn’t record a turnover in the game, and Christian Barmore and Anfernee Jennings were credited with the only other hits on Allen other than sacks from Landry and Jack Gibbens.
Offense goes stale in the second half
It wasn’t that the Patriots got conservative.
They called a run that went for a loss of one yard on the first play of the second half. And why not? The last run they called in a non two-minute situation in the first half was taken 52 yards by Henderson for a touchdown. That initial run play was actually their only rushing attempt in the third quarter.
Maybe they should’ve tried to run it more often given their third- and fourth-quarter results.
Maye was sacked on a third-and-7 snap to end the first Patriots drive of the second half. After one third-down conversion — to Stefon Diggs for 16 yards — the Patriots picked up penalties on back-to-back snaps (a Vederian Lowe false start and a Mike Onwenu hold) to wind up in another third-and-long scenario that ended with a deep-shot interception by cornerback Tre’Davious White.
Maye was sacked twice in the second half by Milano and once by edge defender Greg Rousseau. The Bills appeared to effectively change the picture on Maye by sending a variety of blitzes his way, encouraging him to hold onto the football to try to find openings in scramble-drill situations.
On fourth down, to effectively end the game, Maye broke to his right and tried to throw around edge defender Joey Bosa, who swatted the pass down incomplete.
In addition to the moments when Maye seemed unsure behind center, there were others when he was not as accurate as he’s been many times this season.
He threw a near interception that hit safety Jordan Poyer in the hands. He sailed a pass to Mack Hollins and nearly grounded another in Hollins’ direction that he caught for five yards. On the Patriots’ final third down of the game, Maye seemed to throw one away in the direction of Henderson out of bounds. He also threw slightly behind Hunter Henry on third down — the pass hit Henry’s hands and the veteran tight end likely would’ve deemed it catchable — leading to a key incompletion.
“We knew they were going to continue to pressure,” Vrabel said. “They pressured and played zone. I thought there were times where they pressured and we couldn’t come clean or we weren’t able to complete some passes, especially on third down when they pressured. So we’ll have to learn from it and we’ll have to make sure that we’re converting third downs.”
Was it the Buffalo pressure that forced Maye misses? Was it perhaps the weather, with snow falling in Foxboro and wind picking up as the game went on? Was it just an off day in a high-stakes game?
Maye noted after the game that the goal now was to not allow a bad game to linger.
“Don’t let it beat you twice,” he said.
Kickoff issues sting
Things started to slide for the Patriots with a huge play for Buffalo in the return game.
Ray Davis returned a second-quarter kick 38 yards, and another 15 were tacked on due to a facemask penalty by Brenden Schooler. That led to the first of five consecutive Bills touchdown drives, starting at New England’s 42-yard line.
To keep their momentum going, Davis picked up a massive 58-yard return to begin the second half. Seven plays later, Allen found Cook for a score.
Buffalo’s average drive began at their own 46-yard line. Davis returned four kicks in all for an average of 41.0 yards.
“That was a strength of ours,” Vrabel said of his kick coverage unit. “And we knew going in that it would be a good test and a great challenge. They’re too good to give them short fields.
“Field position in games like this is critical, making them be able to drive it and somehow along the way get a stop… I’m confident that it will be a strength of ours going forward.”