Why the Pats stopped the Bills' offense - Allen got antsy and undisciplined (The Athletic)

[colin]

42 minutes ago, Coach Tuesday said:

Both of our young coordinators got schooled - and not just on Sunday night, but on the days leading up to it.

 

agree, but i thought babbich and the D were pretty solid on sunday night (vs prior weeks).  great pass rush, did well on 3rd down and vs the run, just total disaster in the back end, and i think that was on the players (rapp basically lost his courage, and tre is not nfl level).  the 4th quarter total flop was weak, but we were a couple slightly better plays from the DL (who played really well over all) from shutting them down.  

 

to me, the OC was baited into a trap and ate the cheese with his tail caught for more or less the entire night.

[Buffalo Ballin]

Tom Brady has games where he threw 3 INTs and still won the game anyway because Patriots defense stepped up.

 

He did it to us once.

 

Yeah, regardless of Josh Allen's play, it was just 2 Turnovers. In a regular season game. Just call it: our Defense messed up. They gotta do their jobs too.

[Generic_Bills_Fan]

4 minutes ago, Buffalo Ballin said:

Tom Brady has games where he threw 3 INTs and still won the game anyway because Patriots defense stepped up.

 

He did it to us once.

 

Yeah, regardless of Josh Allen's play, it was just 2 Turnovers. In a regular season game. Just call it: our Defense messed up. They gotta do their jobs too.

Lol I don’t understand this at all…if the defense was anything less than great in the first half that game is over at halftime. Played great early, then struggled, then got the big three and out needed late.  it’s a team loss idk why everyone is trying to blame one thing. 
 

I’d personally blame the offense more than the defense…but wouldn’t mind the opposite if that.  To only blame the defense though is wild 
 

Edited 4 hours ago by Generic_Bills_Fan

[Low Positive]

8 minutes ago, Generic_Bills_Fan said:

Game would’ve been a pats blowout by halftime if the defense wasn’t playing very well in the first half…this was very much a team loss.  Shouldn’t even be in a game with that many turnovers/penalties

 

pretty much gave up 3 points despite the pats having good drive starts. The other 3 points the bills offense fumbled and put the pats instantly in fg range 

 

The game would have been a Bills blowout by halftime without two completely unforced turnovers and a stupid illegal procedure penalty on the Bills' first three drives.  Go back and think of how you felt when that stupid first fumble happened. It felt to me like taking 7 off the board because they couldn't stop the Bills on that first drive. 

[BillsVet]

Offensively, Buffalo is in the same place at this time of the season as they were in 2024.  Start hot against mediocre to average competition, then see an opponent adapt to what they're doing and not have the personnel to overcome it.  Only question is whether Beane and the HC to look in the mirror and back away from how they scheme the offense and prioritize personnel.  Trade deadline is November 4th so we're gonna find out.    

 

[frostbitmic]

When you're starting every drive with a penalty, putting you in 1st and 15 or first and 20, it makes it a lot easier for the Defense to stop you.

 

Some were 💩 calls but most of it was undisciplined play by our guys, no excuse for it. I hope they have the offenders running wind sprints all week and have Coleman walk around all week with a ball in his hands.

 

The team didn't look ready for the patriots nor did they have much emotion throughout the game, that I'll lay the blame on the coaches.

[Buffalo Ballin]

13 minutes ago, Generic_Bills_Fan said:

Lol I don’t understand this at all…if the defense was anything less than great in the first half that game is over at halftime. Played great early, then struggled, then got the big three and out needed late.  it’s a team loss idk why everyone is trying to blame one thing. 
 

I’d personally blame the offense more than the defense…but wouldn’t mind the opposite if that.  To only blame the defense though is wild 
 

Because our Defense usually fails when Josh Allen and our offense are playing lights out in the playoffs.

Edited 4 hours ago by Buffalo Ballin

[Dan]

17 minutes ago, Low Positive said:

This article is hindsight at it's best. 363 yards of offense should be enough to win a football game. The Bills also had

• more total yards
• more first downs
• same yards per play
• better third-down conversion rate
• fewer sacks allowed (Bills sacked Maye 4 times)
• fewer punts

Yes, the Pats had slightly more passing yards, but the Bills had a bunch more rushing yards. If they stopped the Bills offense, then we stopped theirs even more. I know it didn't feel like it at the time, but that's what the stats and game fiim tell you. The more I keep watching the game film, the more I realize that it was a close game that the Bills lost because of two completely unforced fumbles and stupid pre-snap penalties. Erase either one of those, and they win a close division game. In fact, erase that stopid TE end around fumble, and the Bills might win going away because who knows what happens if the Bills go up 7-0 after forcing a punt on the opening drive. In fact, the Bills were moving the ball on both their opening drives, but fumbles and penalties, not the Pats defense, stopped them. But because Joe B has a weeks worth of long-form content to create from one game, we get BS like this. Sorry, but I'm starting to get exhausted by people looking for, and drawing, absolute conclusions from a game that was won because one team made completely preventable mistakes. The only takeaway from this game should be that the Pats are a good team now, and the Bills can't play sloppy football and expect to win anymore. That's it!

 

BTW, I hope Palmer is running laps today because of that idiotic illegal procedure penalty in the first quarter. That killed a drive, all because he can't line up right. Completely inexcusable.

Gotta say… of all the takes I've read this week… this one seems the most accurate to my eyes. The Bills looked like the Bills.  On defense, they gave up plays, but made enough plays to keep them to 6 points in the first half. The offense was moving the ball around well… until they weren’t. Just too many penalities and the turnovers, obviously.  Granted, I contend a lot of the penalties were extremely ticky tack calls, while they let the Pats get by with much more.  Yes, Palmer may have been more than a yard off the line, but he was maybe 1.25 yards off the line.  It was not blatantly bad, and in most all instances that alignment isn't called.  
 

That all being said, the Pats just had a solidly good game plan.  And they came in fired up and wanting that win more.  Diggs played his best game in like 4? years!  The Bills did what they've been doing… and didn't match the intensity of the game.  My concern after this game is that they, as a team, are becoming too predictable.  Allen likes to roll out to his right when the drive/game is on the line; so they overloaded the right side, and forced him into the teeth of their line.  That, along with sound run defense, made for a tough game and Brady had little plan or ability to counter it.  Even still, if the Bills don't turn the ball  over or get a couple penalties on every drive (or the refs call PI when Shakir gets tackled), they probably win the game. The defense.. well its just always going to be what it is.. bend and pray they don't break.  Which may be fine, but they need to have a Plan B for stopping an offense that only needs a FG with 2 mins or less in a game!  In that situation, bending means you will break when kickers can easily make 50+ yarders now. 

Speaking of WRs getting tackled, is it just me or does Coleman seem to get mugged on almost every catch he makes?  I get it, he's slow.  He doesn't get separation.  But it seems every time I see him going up after a ball a defender is draped all over him. 

[Generic_Bills_Fan]

11 minutes ago, Low Positive said:

The game would have been a Bills blowout by halftime without two completely unforced turnovers and a stupid illegal procedure penalty on the Bills' first three drives.  Go back and think of how you felt when that stupid first fumble happened. It felt to me like taking 7 off the board because they couldn't stop the Bills on that first drive. 

Oh yea it definitely could’ve been…I was just commenting on how weird it is that bills fans of all people would take 40ish minutes of great defensive play for granted 😂. 
 

the flip side of how people are criticizing  the defense in this one would be Josh absolutely lighting it up for 40 ish mins then jumping all over him for two bad drives because the defense couldn’t seal the game on the final drive.  Everyone blames the defense in that situation too though haha idk how people can have it both ways.  It was very much a team loss 

Edited 4 hours ago by Generic_Bills_Fan

[Buffalo Ballin]

The offense can't be blamed most of the time, especially in this one, Josh Allen didn't even play that badly. Again, it was just 2 Turnovers. Game was still close.

[Low Positive]

1 minute ago, Generic_Bills_Fan said:

Oh yea it definitely could’ve been…I was just commenting on how weird it is that bills fans of all people would take 40ish minutes of great defensive play for granted 😂. 
 

the flip side of how people are criticizing  the defense in this one would be Josh absolutely lighting it up for 40 ish mins then jumping all over him for two bad drives because the defense couldn’t seal the game on the final drive.  Everyone blames the defense in that situation too though haha idk how people can have it both ways.  It was very much a team loss 

We want to find things in the actual football to blame, but it really was the two unforced turnovers and the illegal procedure penalty (GET LINED UP CORRECTLY, YOU MORONS!!!). On that illegal procedure penalty. It negated a 8-yard Ty Johnson run that would have put the Bills at 3-2 at the NE 29. They convert that nine times out of ten, but at worst they get 3 points and an early lead. But becuase Palmer can't do the simpliest thing correctly, the Bills were at 2-10 from the NE 42. They punted after two stupid passes to Keon, but that penalty killed a drive. Then they had another illegal formation penalty on the f-ing punt. The Bills lost because they were sloppy in the first half, letting the Pats feel their way into the game. Then in the second half, Maye played out of his mind and we lost by 3. But the Bills could have stepped on them early and changed the entire feel of them game if not for the unforced errors.

 

BTW, that pass to Diggs that Maye made, falling to his knee,s gave us a glimpse of what it's like to watch your team play Josh Allen. 

 

 

[TH3]

1 hour ago, dave mcbride said:

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6697771/2025/10/08/how-patriots-took-down-unbeaten-bills/?source=dailyemail&campaign=601983&userId=6953080&source=dailyemail

 

(Fodder for @GunnerBill, @HappyDays, and @Kirby Jackson)

 

“New England did a really good job, for the most part, of keeping a roof on stuff, and we’re going to make Josh Allen hold on to the ball or take a lot of the underneath stuff,” Klassen says. “And I think at a certain point he got pretty antsy with that and started making a few mistakes.”

 

Allen’s bad games still look an awful lot like good ones, but New England did push the MVP into working further downfield than he normally does, and forced a red zone interception that kept Buffalo from taking a late third-quarter lead. 

 

Allen has attempted 51 passes of 10 or more air yards through five weeks, and 30 percent of them came Sunday against the Patriots. Part of that was the disastrous run game, but combined with an unsettled Allen, the Bills never seemed to be fully in rhythm. 

 

“It felt a little bit up and down where they rely more on splash plays than this offense typically has,” Mays says. “I just think about how methodical they felt for the most part over the four weeks. They haven’t been that explosive, but they’ve been ruthlessly efficient.”

 

The fallback was to lean on their MVP, which worked, but has a limited ceiling against a disciplined defense. 

 

“Even a lot of the chunk plays they had early, it was Josh Allen making some sort of crazy play outside of the pocket,” Klassen says. “[Like] the flea flicker that they hit down the left side. It was a lot of, ‘Josh Allen, save us!’ or these one or two designer plays.”

 

The Pats also challenged Buffalo’s receivers to beat them one-on-one, playing man coverage nearly 40 percent of the time. That’s always a risk against a quarterback who can run the way Allen can, but New England was able to leverage the Bills’ biggest weakness against them.  

 

“We’ve talked about this for years with the Buffalo Bills,” Klassen says. “They don’t have many we-can-just-beat-you-one-on-one receivers. Challenge them. If you feel (Patriots defensive back) Christian Gonzalez is going to blank this guy 80 percent of the time, OK, then you take the one in five losses that you take. Same with Carlton Davis and all those guys.”

 

Sheesh - Bills had more yards, more first downs - and more turnovers. 

[extrahammer]

1 hour ago, Goin Breakdown said:

I've said this in a few other threads over the week. It's Diggs in joshes head. I truly believe that Josh wants to prove his value to Diggs so much he doesn't focus on his tasks in front of him.

There's like 3 plays in a think of that could have lead to points  if Josh was just more calm and focused. 
 

This was Houston last year. 
 

 

 

Diggs was probably trying to be alpha dog #1 when he was here and that probably rubbed Josh the wrong way. Everything with them seemed great until the Cincy Divisional Playoff game, super awkward between them mostly after that. 

 

 

Edited 4 hours ago by extrahammer

[Low Positive]

11 minutes ago, Buffalo Ballin said:

The offense can't be blamed most of the time, especially in this one, Josh Allen didn't even play that badly. Again, it was just 2 Turnovers. Game was still close.

And even after all that, if the refs keep the flag in their pockets on that OPI call, we still win the game. Yes, it was a penalty according to the letter of the law. But if they called that every time, most screen passes would be flagged. But yeah, 22-31, 253, 2TD, 1INTs should win most games. Lost in all the angst is that Dalton Kincaid had his first 100-yard receiving game.  So yeah, there was enough offense there to win the game and the defense also did well enough. It was the turnovers and penalties that lost it. 

[MJS]

I got chastised here for saying that Allen played a poor game, but as the week goes on, more and more people seem to be agreeing.

 

He wasn't awful. He still made plays. But he had four or five mistakes that were really costly.

[oldmanfan]

1 hour ago, Buffalo Ballin said:

I respect The Athletic, but OMG? LOL.

 

This game was still winnable, if, only, Oh we don't know, if the Defense did their job. Y'know, get 3rd down stops. Also, limit opposing RB yards.

The D actually held them to 33.3% on third down.  

[Generic_Bills_Fan]

27 minutes ago, Buffalo Ballin said:

The offense can't be blamed most of the time, especially in this one, Josh Allen didn't even play that badly. Again, it was just 2 Turnovers. Game was still close.

the game was close because the defense held on all but two drives and on top of that they gave the offense the ball back with a late stop with a chance to ice it and they failed

 

josh isn’t the only player on offense lol guys were committing penalties,missing blocks, fumbling the ball all night.  The offense was terrible 

 

if the point is ‘the defense should be able to full bail out the offense when they have a really bad game because the offense has done that for the defense ’ then that would be a discussion.

 

but if we’re talking about what went wrong in this game specifically, not blaming the offense for at least 50% of it is insane to me and that’s being pretty generous.  I wouldn’t argue if someone settled for it was half the offenses fault but it’s significantly higher than that the way I saw it 

 

Edited 4 hours ago by Generic_Bills_Fan

[BillsVet]

4 minutes ago, MJS said:

I got chastised here for saying that Allen played a poor game, but as the week goes on, more and more people seem to be agreeing.

 

He wasn't awful. He still made plays. But he had four or five mistakes that were really costly.

 

Josh was the MVP last year and yet, he had one of the worst games a QB has ever had last season versus Houston.  The Baltimore game also was a shock to that offense.  How does one reconcile that?  Did he not take his Nutrol and have a bad night's sleep before the New England game?  

 

Is it reasonable to conclude that, while having his faults, Josh's surrounding cast including the GM, HC and OC are not getting it done either.  As in, that personnel decisions this off-season were poor, their overall philosophy is too risk-averse, that offensive game-plans are too conservative, and that featuring that WR group is insufficient.  

 

There's really two types of fans here this week: those who look back the past few weeks and do their own Kevin Bacon Animal House toutine, "All is well! Remain calm!" and those who see we're needlessly repeating Weeks 4 and 5 from last year all over again.    

[boater]

This article can't be true.

 

I was assured by the most wise TSW posters that Allen is a unicorn who made no mistakes and that the only reason for the loss was that the team around him collapsed, especially those inept coaches. (let's throw the GM in the fail pile as well)

[The Jokeman]

28 minutes ago, Buffalo Ballin said:

The offense can't be blamed most of the time, especially in this one, Josh Allen didn't even play that badly. Again, it was just 2 Turnovers. Game was still close.

It was close because the defense held the Patriots to 6 points in the first half. Yes, the defense was bad in the 2nd half but the offense wasn't good enough to put up more points than the Pats in the 2nd half. Kudos to them but I don't see us turning the ball over 3 times or getting as many penalties as we saw on a regular basis to think we aren't the top team in this division if not conference as the Colts are a great story but can't see Danny dimes keeping up his current pace all season.