The Buffalo Bills got two touchdown passes from Josh Allen and outpossessed the New England Patriots by almost a 2-1 margin on Thursday night, and cruised to a 24-10 win at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts.
Buffalo (9-3) owned the number of plays in the first half as the possession time was 19:33 to just 10:27 for New England. Despite that, the Patriots did take an early lead. After the Bills went up 3-0 on their first time with the ball on a Tyler Bass field goal, Mac Jones fired a screen pass to Marcus Jones in the flat who turned it up field and outraced defenders up the sideline untouched for a 48 yard touchdown. It was the first offensive snap of the season for Marcus Jones, who is usually on special teams. Buffalo followed with a long 12 play drive to put them up for good at 10-7, as Allen hit Stefon Diggs for an eight yard touchdown pass on the first snap of the second quarter. With 5:34 left in the first half, it looked like New England may force a Bills field goal attempt but Allen had other plans. Rolling to his right on third and goal and just before stepping out of bounds, Allen threw back across his body finding Gabriel Davis for another eight yard touchdown. The Patriots forced the only turnover of the opening 30 minutes with 1:31 to go before the break when Josh Uche rushed and hit Allen forcing a fumble that was recovered by Matt Judon. The hosts however could not turn that into any points as Nick Folk had his 48 yard field goal attempt hit the crossbar and bounce back out as the deficit remained 10 points.
Neither team scored in the third quarter, but Buffalo continued their ball control offense starting a drive that went 15 plays and ended early in the fourth. Devin Singletary would score on the ninth rush of the drive, a one yarder on third and goal that put an exclamation point on a third straight Bills victory over the Patriots and second straight in Foxborough. New England (6-6) got a late field goal from Folk and tried for an onside kick which was unsuccessful. Buffalo with the three straight wins over New England have outscored the Patriots by a combined margin of 104-45 in those victories.
Mac Jones finished 22-36 passing for 195 yards and a touchdown in the loss. New England only rushed for 61 yards on 13 carries, with 54 coming from Rhamondre Stevenson. Stevenson also had the most catches with six receptions for 24 yards. Marcus Jones finished with two grabs for 51 yards and the lone touchdown for his team in the first quarter. Jonathan Jones and Uche both had six tackles to lead the defense. Allen went 22-33 for 223 yards and the two touchdown passes in the Buffalo win. James Cook and Singletary combined for 115 rushing yards, with Singletary adding the one touchdown that put the game away. Diggs had seven catches for 92 yards and a score, and Tremaine Edmunds had five tackles. The Patriots return to action a week from Monday (December 12) when they hit the road to face the Arizona Cardinals.
