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The Buffalo Bills (4-3) were a disjointed mess against the New England Patriots (2-5) on Sunday, October 22, and took a devastating 29-25 loss to their AFC East rival.
For the third straight game, quarterback Josh Allen and co. couldn’t get anything going in the first half. After going 9-of-16 for 99 yards and throwing an interception on his very first pass attempt, Allen did his best to turn things around in the second half.
Early in the third quarter, down 13-3, Allen airmailed the ball right over tight end Dawson Knox’s head, but the Madden 24 cover star’s mistake was negated by a roughing the passer penalty called against Patriots cornerback Jack Jones.
A video of Allen’s flop on X, formerly known as Twitter, quickly went viral, as viewers ripped the Bills star for his successful dramatics, flipping his head back and falling to the ground. After getting the bonus yardage, Allen closed the drive with a short touchdown pass to James Cook.
Savage Sports posted, “Josh Allen with the SOFT flop. Embarrassing. He weighs twice as much as Jack Jones.” MLFootball shared the video and wrote, “HORRIFIC: Roughing the passer call by the #NFL refs to help the #Bills and Josh Allen, again.”
A Patriots fan posted, “Give him a f****** Emmy,” while another person wrote, “Lmao it ain’t a football game without a Josh Allen Oscar-worthy flop! 🤣”
However, MassLive’s Mark Daniels didn’t think the penalty was too egregious. Daniels posted, “Jack Jones gets flagged for roughing the passer. Tough call, but he did (briefly) make contact with Josh Allen’s face mask. The flag came out very late.”
Even Bills analysts could admit Allen sold the play. Buffalo Rumblings’ Bruce Nolan posted, “Also, a flop by Allen (I get why fans of other teams don’t like him apart from him being good).”
Jones himself chimed in after the game. “Bad call but F it,” he posted
The Bills Defense Failed to Contain Patriots QB Mac Jones
It wasn’t just the Bills offense that flailed against the Patriots, a team they were deemed 8-point favorites to beat. Buffalo’s defense somehow struggled to contain Patriots quarterback Mac Jones, who’s thrown zero touchdowns and five interceptions over the past three games.
With 12 seconds left in the fourth quarter, the Bills couldn’t stop Jones from scoring the game-winning one-yard touchdown pass to tight end Mike Gesicki.
“It comes down to that drive,” safety Micah Hyde told The Buffalo News after the game. “This is the NFL, man. Coming down to the last two minutes of the game, we’ve got to get off the field, and we didn’t do that.”
While the Bills lost defensive tackle DaQuan Jones (pectoral tear) in Week 5, not having Ed Oliver (toe) against New England proved fatal for the defensive line. Jordan Phillips, Tim Settle, and Poona Ford struggled against the pass and the rush.
The Patriots have lost by a combined score of 72-3 over the past three games. Against the Bills, Jones completed 83.3% of his passes for 272 yards and two touchdowns.
The Bills Have a Short Week Before Facing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 8
Allen, who finished against the Patriots completing 65.9% of his passes for 265 yards, two touchdowns, and a rushing score told reporters after the game that while things may look “bleak” at the moment, they’ll figure it out.
Unfortunately for the Bills, they don’t have a lot time to figure things out before their next game. Following Sunday’s loss, Buffalo has just four days before hosting the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Thursday Night Football.
Bills head coach Sean McDermott said during his postgame presser, “We’ve gotta continue to find answers as to why we’re stubbing our toe. We’re beating ourselves at time and not linking up in all three phases to control a game.”
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