Buffalo Bills studs and duds after losing shot at AFC East

Stud: Cole Beasley

Once again, Cole Beasley proved he’s the man. The veteran slot receiver joined Buffalo this offseason and has put together the best campaign of his career.

With no one else consistently getting open, Beasley had a lot of weight on his shoulders and rose to the challenge. He ended up catching seven passes for 108 yards and the damage could have been more.

Beasley had a couple of routes where he beat his guy and was open but Josh Allen was off with his pass. One of those came on a third-down play where Beasley would have had a lot of room to run after the catch as well.

He also made it closer than he should have on the desperation fourth-down throw from Josh Allen that closed out their final drive.

Dud: Sean McDermott

Just over halfway through the second quarter, the Patriots went for a conversion on fourth-and-1. Sony Michel ended up taking the ball up the middle and was awarded the first down. On replay, it seemed as though the spot was bad but Sean McDermott kept the challenge flag in his pocket.

There’s no guarantee the call would have been overturned but not challenging it did guarantee the Bills weren’t getting the ball. It also allowed New England to kick a field goal, going up 10-3.

It could be argued that McDermott was trying to save his challenges — or possibly even his timeouts. But he didn’t end up needing any more challenges and then had some clock management errors in the second half that left them without enough challenges to get the ball back after they failed to score on their final drive.

McDermott has been fantastic this season but he has to find a way to get his team a victory over an elite team at some point.