Updated October 4, 2026, 10:29 p.m. ET
ORCHARD PARK – It will be months before we know how damaging the Buffalo Bills’ 29-26 loss to their arch-rival, the New England Patriots, will be in the AFC East standings, but Joe Brady, Josh Allen and company are hoping history doesn’t repeat itself.
Last season, the Patriots arrived at the old Abbott Road Stadium two games behind the Bills in Week 5, knowing a loss could dash any chance they had of ending Buffalo’s five-year reign atop the division. They dominated the bumbling Bills on Sunday Night Football, and won 10 straight games and advanced to the AFC East title.
This year, the exact same situation – albeit a week earlier in the schedule – faced the Patriots. They were two games down and in a very vulnerable position, but once again they took advantage of another fumbled performance from the Bills and just like that, they’re in a game and they own the early tiebreaker advantage.
“It stinks,” Allen said. “I feel like we got hurt tonight. Offense, defense, special teams, everyone. We all feel like we could play better. The ones in the division are stinging. It feels like it’s a two-game swing, and we have to find a way to learn from it and move it to the back of our brain, learn from it and move on.”
More déjà vu, right?
Next week, the Bills have an extremely tough test Monday night against the Rams in Los Angeles, while the Patriots host the Raiders. It’s very possible that the Patriots will technically be in first place in eight days. It’s crazy, but it’s true, because that’s the magnitude of these divisional games.
“It doesn’t matter, man, it’s all about how we react,” linebacker Bradley Chubb said. “You want to run the division, do all that stuff, but at the end of the day, man, it’s all about how we react. It happened. And this team, I know the brothers I have, man. I know what type of people we have in this locker room, we’re going to react, and that’s what it’s all about.”
Here is how I wrote down the invoices:
PASSAGE FAULT: C-
It’s been two straight weeks since Allen has looked sharp. The Patriots put pressure on him not only with their blitzes but even with four rushers, and they forced him to make bad throws and bad decisions, none worse than the ridiculous interception at the end of the game, a ball that a rookie should not throw, let alone the 2024 NFL MVP.
Without DJ Moore on the field, this is the 2025 passing offense where wide receivers simply aren’t getting open enough down the field and Allen finds himself looking and searching too often. Keon Coleman did his part, catching six for 116 yards and the go-ahead run with 4:27 left, and Khalil Shakir caught seven for 82, including 50 on one play.
The big whiffs were TE Dalton Kincaid and WR Josh Palmer. After doing virtually nothing the previous week against the Chargers, well, other than losing a fumble, Kincaid was a ghost in this game with a catch on two targets for seven yards. Palmer had to replace Moore and did nothing, including not finding a way to play defense on Allen’s ill-advised heave at the end.
RUN THE OFFENSE: C
Against a Patriots run defense that entered the day ranked 19th in yards allowed per attempt at 4.3, the Bills failed to get James Cook going. Of course, it didn’t help that he only had eight carries in the first three quarters and those were for just 26 yards. He started rolling on fourth down and finished with 75 yards, but the middle of the Patriots line, even without stud DT Christian Barmore, managed to find a way with Buffalo’s offensive line.
Even Allen was completely neutered. He had five carries for four yards, although he scored one of his patented QB sneak TDs, giving him 88 from scrimmage for his career, a new Bills record breaking a tie with Andre Reed and Thurman Thomas.
DEFENSE PASS: F
The Bills played without CB Christian Benford and it proved fatal. Maxwell Hairston and Davison Igbinosun were roasted time and time again and, according to Pro Football Focus rankings, each allowed four receptions on seven targets and combined to allow three touchdowns. Drake Maye knew he could attack them at will, and he did, and the question is: where were the safeties to help these kids?
Dee Alford threw one of the luckiest interceptions you’ll ever see. Romeo Doubs made a catch, but when he hit the ground, he threw the ball in the air and it landed in the surprised arms of Alford and he returned it 37 yards to the 9 to set up Tyler Bass’ end-of-the-first-half gift basket.
Before that, Doubs held on to a pass in the end zone after beating Maxwell Hairston cleanly with a run to the post for a 14-yard touchdown that opened the scoring, and he beat him again in the third quarter, just after Hairston was nailed for a catch in the end zone on third-and-goal from the 2.
As for the pass rush, pretty smooth. PFF gave the Bills 24 individual pressures, including seven to Greg Rousseau, but there was only one sack, a split between Ed Oliver and TJ Parker that also forced a Maye fumble on the play. Too often, when the rush came, Maye would break containment and pull a running Allen 54 yards dagger through the heart.
RUN DEFENSE: C-
When Maye wasn’t tearing up the secondary, he was either running the ball himself or handing the ball to Rhamondre Stevenson (47 yards) and TreVeyon Henderson (42) to rack up 143 total yards and 4.1 per attempt. Yes, those numbers are skewed by Maye, but there were too many times where the Patriots ran the ball and achieved at least semi-decent yardage and yardage.
Deone Walker held up pretty well and made a big tackle for loss in the fourth quarter, but Ed Oliver was injured again and his absence was noticeable. Greg Gaines and DeWayne Carter just aren’t on Oliver’s level, and neither is Landon Jackson, who appeared to have suffered a serious leg injury but was able to return. The Patriots finished with 405 total offensive yards and 26 first downs.
SPECIAL TEAMS: D
Tyler Bass made a stupid mistake after the Bills’ first touchdown when he failed to get the ball into the landing zone inside the 20, so the Patriots took a drive to the 40. It was inexcusable, even though the Patriots blew that chance thanks to a Maye fumble deep in Bills territory.
Early in the second quarter, Tommy Doman failed to complete a good punt, 43 yards from 20, and the coverage team made it worse by missing two tackles, which allowed Marcus Jones a 17-yard return, giving the Patriots another good start at the 37, and that led to a TD drive.
Sam Franklin, who is supposed to be a special teams ace, seems to commit more penalties than tackles. Doman kicked to the Pats 10 in the third and the Bills stopped Jones there, but Franklin was nailed for a killer facemask, moving the ball to the 25. The kickoff coverage team allowed Kyle Williams a 27-yard average, so that was pretty good.
In the return game, Greg Dortch only managed 16 yards on two punts, and he averaged 22.8 on four kickoff returns while Ray Davis had a 29-yarder. Kaleb Elarms-Orr led the tackles with two.
COACHING: D-
It was without a doubt the worst day of play Joe Brady has had this year. I thought several of his decisions were crazy, especially those ridiculous WR screens that kept coming back to him. None of them worked.
He wasn’t helped much by Allen making some poor decisions with the ball and missing a few plays that looked open. Brady admitted there was no excuse for not getting Kincaid more involved.
On defense, Jim Leonhard is a former DB, and he needs to start using that expertise to fix the secondary because right now, it’s terrible. The Bills lose coverage far too often, whether it’s man or zone, and there have been far too many big plays – eight passes gained at least 14 yards and two of them were for touchdowns.
Sal Maiorana has covered the Buffalo Bills for more than four decades, including 37 years as a full-time writer/columnist for the D&C. He has written numerous books on the team’s history and is also co-host of the podcast/YouTube show BLEAV in Bills. He can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com, and you can follow him on X @salmaiorana and on Bluesky @salmaiorana.bsky.social.
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