Bills Mafia is going to want to forget about the Buffalo Bills’ Week 4 loss to the New England Patriots. However, it won’t be easy at all. Any loss is hard to accept, but it’s even tougher because it is the Patriots.
It’s the team that dominated the Bills for nearly two decades in the Tom Brady era, and they are the team that took back the AFC East last season after the Bills had won it five straight years.
The Bills lost to the Patriots in Orchard Park, 29-26, but it didn't feel like a three-point game at all. While the Bills had the lead with under two minutes to go, Drake Maye managed to connect with Efton Chism III on what would be the game's winning-touchdown to beat Buffalo.
At the same time, the one big positive for the Bills coming out of Week 4 was the breakout performance by wide receiver Keon Coleman.
Keon Coleman stepped up big time despite Bills losing in Week 4
For just the third time in his career, Coleman managed to record over 100+ yards in a game, finishing Week 4 with 116 yards to go with a 34-yard touchdown grab from Josh Allen to put the Bills ahead of the Patriots in the later stages of the 4th quarter.
After going for 63 yards off of 6 catches in Week 2 against the Detroit Lions, Coleman broke out for the Bills and it was great to see him continuing to elevate his game. This performance by Coleman should give the Bills confidence in him going into Week 5's primetime matchup against the Los Angeles Rams.
Not only that, but it should have Buffalo believing that they can rest DJ Moore, who is dealing with a shoulder injury going back to Week 2 and re-injured it against the Patriots and was unable to finish the game.
ESPN's Adam Schefter reported that Moore's shoulder injury is not considered long-term "as of right now", but putting that at the end shows that there is definitely a concern moving forward.
Bills should feel confident that Keon Coleman can take over for DJ Moore in short-term future
It's still a long season and there is plenty of football to play. The Bills have back-to-back west coast games coming up. In Week 5, they will be out in Los Angeles to battle the Rams, and then they will take on the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 6 before their bye week.
With what Coleman has managed to show in two of the four games early on this season, the Bills need to really consider making Coleman a bigger part of the offense and giving Moore the ability to rest and let his shoulder heal up for November/December football. That's where Moore is going to come in big for the Bills.
It will be interesting to see how Moore's injury progresses this week and whether or not he will play. However, if the Bills want to have him for later on in the season at or close to 100%, the smart thing to do is let him rest and give Coleman another chance to build off of his Week 4 performance.
Add us as a preferred source on Google