This Week 16 matchup between the Buffalo Bills and New England Patriots is the perfect definition that the NFL is a week-to-week schedule. Anyone can be beaten, no matter what the record is. Coming into this game, the Bills were 11-3 while the Patriots were 3-11, but New England played like the better team early on to give the Bills a scare. In the end though, the Bills came victorious with a 24-21 win.
On their first offensive drive, the Patriots took the ball 58 yards on six plays where Drake Maye delivered a beautiful pass to Kayshon Boutte to give the Patriots an early 7-0 lead. After forcing the Bills to punt it back to them, Maye led the Patriots to a 16-play, 91-yard drive and New England punched the ball into the endzone again to make it 14-0.
Buffalo’s defense looked pathetic and it looked like a trap game was on it’s way. Then James Cook, not Josh Allen, showed up big time for the Bills to get them back into the game. Cook kicked off the Bills’ first scoring drive with a 46-yard touchdown run to put Buffalo on the board.
After four total drives by both teams to close out the first-half, the Bills came out of the 2nd half and put together a touchdown drive from Josh Allen to James Cook to tie the ball game. Once the Bills tied it up, New England could not get anything going and their first quarter momentum went downhill.
Tyler Bass kicked a 50-yard field goal and Taron Johnson scored a defensive touchdown to give the Bills a 10-point lead. Buffalo woke up in the second half and now they are heading into Week 17 at 12-3 and still in the hunt for the top seed in the AFC playoffs.
Bills avoid a disastrous loss against Patriots
Divisional games are always tough, but the Bills were in trouble early on. Struggling against a team that is more than likely going to have a top-three draft pick is not ideal, but we see this kind of thing all the time. While the Bills didn’t have their typical dominating performance like they have in recent memory, a win is a win and they are two wins away from sweeping the AFC East this year.
The biggest news that Bills fans need to keep an eye on is Josh Allen, who had an elbow injury in this game but was able to finish out the game. With the reports that Allen had already been playing with a broken hand since Week 1, the Bills cannot afford to lose Allen or not have him at 100% health.