The Bills Blog

The Buffalo Bills have lost their first game of the season in a disappointing 23-20 contest with the New England Patriots. The Bills pride themselves on taking care of the football and winning the turnover battle. In Sunday night’s game, they gave the ball away 3 times and only took it away once. Buffalo put their defense in tough spots all night and it ultimately cost them their undefeated start to the season.

Buffalo Whites out Highmark Stadium for the debut of their Rivalry Jerseys

During Buffalo’s 4-0 start, they found offensive success early in games and had scored on every opening possession in each of their first 4 contests. On Sunday night, the Bills looked poised to continue that streak and were marching down field before fumbling a handoff on a trick play. The energy immediately shifted and Buffalo’s momentum on offense stalled.

The Bills defense responded by forcing a fumble of their own and gave the offense a chance to correct their early mistakes. However, the mistakes piled up and on their next two drives the bills were forced to punt before Keon Coleman coughed up a fumble in their own redzone. The defense stood tall and managed to force the Patriots to settle for a field goal. Still, the offense continued to stall and only managed to score a field goal of their own in the first half.

Buffalo received the ball to start the second half and it looked for a second like they may be back on track. The Bills scored 7 to start the half and pulled ahead 10-6. The defense immediately folded and gave up a touchdown on just 5 plays and 74 yards. From there Buffalo battled back and marched down into the redzone before Josh Allen threw an untimely interception. New England took the ball and the momentum, they drove down the field and scored a touchdown to cap off an impressive 11 play, 90 yard drive.

From there the Bills were forced to battle back and found a way to tie the game at 20-20 with a bit over 2 minutes left. With a chance to get the ball back and potentially win the game, the defense let the Patriots march into field goal range and allowed a 52 yard field goal with 15 seconds left. The Bills, with no time outs didn’t even bother running a trick play and completed one pass before time expired.

The Bills struggled mightily with covering former teammate Stephon Diggs and on big downs Drake Maye delivered him the ball with confidence. Any time the Pats needed a conversion, CB Tre White was nowhere to be found in coverage.

The Week 5 loss is a head scratcher for sure. The Bills plagued themselves with offensive penalties that seemed to halt any momentum they could muster up, putting themselves in tough spots all night. Defensively, the Bills never once switched their best corner, Christion Benford onto Diggs and it begs the question, why not? It was abundantly clear that he was their go to option all night, yet no defensive adjustments were made.

This is a classic early season loss for the Bills and I have no doubt that they will get better as the year progresses. Nonetheless, this one stings. Especially because it was a game at home, with brand new jerseys against a divisional opponent. Buffalo has to respond on Monday Night with a convincing win in Atlanta.