5 takeaways after the Patriots blow a 21-point lead to the Bills

Sunday afternoon at Gillette Stadium started out fun - until it very much wasn't. What began looking like a coronation for a new division champion became a reminder that this is still a young New England Patriots team that has things to learn.

At the start of the week, Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel was asked about how he's seen the Buffalo Bills grow since the first matchup between these two teams back in Week 5. He highlighted the Bills' resolve, even when facing early, significant deficits.

"We talked about the respect that we have for them as a football team, players and coaches," Vrabel explained. "You just draw on some games here in the past. I mean, it was 20-10 in our game, they didn't bat an eye and they came back and tied it in the fourth quarter. We were up two scores in the fourth quarter. We needed our best execution and kick to win it. Whether it was the Tampa Bay game, being down and then winning the game, going away. Pittsburgh, down 7-3, and then really just played tremendous football in the second half. And then last week, two-score game with eight minutes to go in the fourth quarter. So, never any panic over there. It's a veteran team. They're familiar with their program. So, however the game unfolds, we'll have to do everything that we can to play the entire four quarters and then some if we need to."

That ended up being prudent advice, although Vrabel's team could not follow through. After jumping out to an early 21-0 lead the wheels fell off the wagon. Buffalo scored a touchdown on five consecutive drives starting late in the second quarter, storming back for a 35-31 win.

"We weren't able to get any stops," Vrabel said postgame, reflecting on the reality he'd laid out earlier in the week. "When we had an opportunity to make a play, we weren't able to make it. Penalties. And that's how this game goes. A few small plays make the difference. We were very prepared for this team to -- we were going to need 60 minutes to beat this team. This is a good football team. We had a lot of good football in there. And we had a lot of plays that, a few plays we'd like to have back that we'll have to learn from."

The loss ends a Patriots' 10-game winning streak, and prevented the team from claiming the AFC East title, which they would have done with a win in this game. Now the Bills have knotted the head-to-head tiebreaker, and things will come down to the final divisional games to end the season. The Patriots still clinch the division with wins against the Jets and Dolphins in Weeks 17 and 18. That was a common talking point among Vrabel and players after the game - that this loss can't derail what's ahead.

"Don't let it beat you twice. Move on to the next week and learn from it and take what we can," Drake Maye said when asked about not getting to take the division title directly from the Bills. "Know that we've got some football ahead of us that's important, still very important. And don't just hang our hat and keep your head up and know that we had a chance and we're there, just they made more plays and credit to them."

What were those plays that made the difference? Let's take a look in this week's takeaways...

Leading into this game, the Patriots' coaching staff highlighted the threat posed by the Bills' kickoff return unit. Over the past four weeks the unit had been one of the best in the NFL, with a strong performance against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in a comeback win a few weeks ago standing out in particular. Multiple big returns by Ray Davis helped set the Bills' offense up with short fields, allowing them to quickly chip away at both momentum and the lead.

The exact same thing played out in this game. Of the first four times the Patriots kicked off to the Bills, two were either returned across the 50-yard line, and a third was returned near midfield with a facemask penalty by Brenden Schooler in kick coverage pushing it over the line. From the first half through the opening kickoff of the second half the Bills' average starting field position was their own 42-yard line, and the 49-yard line when removing the time the Patriots punted them the ball rather than kicking off in that span.

Davis was once again the culprit. He averaged 41 yards per return on four returns. He even returned one kickoff out of the end zone, rather than taking the favorable 35-yard touchback. For comparison the Patriots came into the game allowing just 24 yards per return, which was tied for the fifth-best number in the NFL.

Was this the entire reason for the Patriots' defensive letdown? No, certainly not. But it's what opened the door for what was to come in the second half...

The final two of those kickoffs led to the Bills' first two touchdowns of the game. After that the field position story changed, as the Patriots were mostly punting (including an arm punt) instead of kicking. But by then, Buffalo's offense has found its rhythm.

Those touchdowns were two of five the Bills rolled off on consecutive drives, encapsulating their comeback. And what started as the Bills taking advantage of short fields turned into long, game-dictating marches. They went...

11 plays/70 yards/5:29 TOP
13 plays/91 yards/6:27 TOP
7 plays/65 yards/3:01 TOP

What made them even more draining was how much the Bills just continued to lean on the Patriots' defensive front, getting the push and winning at the line of scrimmage regularly. Buffalo's line cleared the pathways mainly for James Cook, and the team as a whole rushed for 5.1 yards per carry on those three drives. Two of the three were capped with rushing touchdowns.

"They were able to get the running game going. We missed tackles. We didn't build a good enough wall. Didn't get off on third down. Weren't able to create any turnovers. And weren't getting any stops in the red zone," Vrabel said postgame on the changes between the first and second half. "It's no secret, you know what I mean? Called the same stuff, they called the same stuff. We just have to be able to take advantage of those opportunities that we get to get the drive stopped. Whether that's a penalty or one play or third-down conversion, we've just got to be able to learn from it."

In our '5 Things' game preview, we highlighted how the absence of Milton Williams was the biggest change from the Week 5 meeting to this matchup. The Patriots not having him on the field was readily apparent throughout this stretch, both in terms of containing the traditional run and pressuring and corralling Josh Allen.

On top of that the Patriots were also without Robert Spillane, who dressed by didn't play after initially being listed as limited with a foot injury. The Patriots missed Spillane's strong tackling, with Cook and other Bills backs falling forwards and picking up hidden yardage when being tackled by the Patriots' smaller linebackers. Cook alone had 101 of his 107 total yards after contact.

Missing those two players made a difference, but it shouldn't have been that stark. In the end the Patriots got pushed around at the line of scrimmage in the second half, and the rest of the issues built from that. Once the Patriots' defense was back on its heels, the Bills were able to hit them with quick play action passes, which accounted for a good amount of Buffalo's passing production in the second half.

The issues only compounded from there. Those long drives, plus short drives from the Patriots (admittedly including a quick-strike touchdown, but mostly punts) created a situation where the defense never really got a chance to catch its breath. After the Patriots out-snapped the Bills 33-21 in the first half, Buffalo ran a whooping 46 plays to the Patriots' 18 over the final 30 minutes.

In another topic from this week that foreshadowed this game, Vrabel had discussed how the Patriots had cut down on penalties after a rough start to the season in that regard. Yet penalties proved to be a major issues for the Patriots on Sunday, for the first time in weeks.

It wasn't so much a volume issue - the Patriots were called for seven total penalties, just one over their season average - but the timing. Five of the seven penalties occurred on third or fourth downs - including one late in the first half and the rest in the second half. The two other penalties occurred on kickoffs and massively swung field position. In addition to Schooler's facemask, Marte Mapu was called for a hold that erased a 47-yard kickoff return by Kyle Williams late in the third quarter. The Patriots went from getting the ball in Buffalo territory to inside their own 20, with that drive ending with a fourth-down arm punt interception.

Some of the calls were admittedly questionable - mainly a very late flag on a Carlton Davis fourth down DPI that drew criticism from the veteran cornerback after the game. Vrabel reacted to the play afterwards as well.

"The same guy thought it was a penalty the same way," Vrabel said. "So, it's a judgment call. Whether I disagree with it or not doesn't matter. He called it. That's how this thing goes"

There were also some notable non-calls, highlighted by a deep fourth down throw to Mack Hollins that saw Bills cornerback Tre'Davious White get grabby. The Bills were called for just two penalties in the game.

Head referee John Hussey and his crew certainly didn't make any new fans in New England on Sunday. However the Patriots opened the door for the referees to get involved, and had some unquestionable costly penalties, like back-to-back calls on a Vederian Lowe false start and Mike Onwenu hold on third downs that created a 3rd & 25 that effectively halted what was looking like the Patriots' most promising drive of an overall rough third quarter.

It wasn't as extreme, but the Patriots' offense also slowed significantly in the second half. After scoring touchdowns on three of their first four drives and picking up points on four of their five drives in the first half, they managed just one scoring drive (a one-play drive at that) in the second half.

Part of that seemed to be the passing game just never clicked. Maye did most of his damage in the first half and mainly with his legs, rushing for two touchdowns in the first half - new post-bye wrinkles that may have been in response to the team's red zone issues.

In total Maye completed 14-of-23 passes for 155 yards, with no touchdowns and an interception. His 60.9% completion percentage is his second-lowest of the year so far, and he had more non-competitive, spray throws than he's had in a game since very early in the season. It was the first game he failed to hit 200 yards passing.

That's despite the fact that the line kept him relatively clean. The Bills recorded just eight pressures in the game. Maye was blitzed nine times, with only three of those resulting in pressures according to PFF's initial charting.

"Came out in the second half and just gotta make a play, pick up the first first down, I think that's the biggest thing," Maye said after the game, when specifically asked about the second half. "[There] were some throws I wish I had back, but at the end of the day gotta keep the foot on the pedal and keep it going and kind of don't let them dictate. It starts with me. And we kind of felt during the week that we had a chance this was going to happen, and just gotta keep our foot on the pedal. It happened in the first game, they came back, came back. Just gotta make a play and do my part when we had the ball and a chance to win the game, go win the game."

Multiple times, it seemed like Maye would have a chance to create his 'MVP moment.' Yet the moment never came.

Maye will have to get things figured out quickly - next week the Patriots face a Baltimore Ravens team that had one of its best pass defense games of the season. They held Joe Burrow to 25-of-39 passing, with 225 yards and no touchdowns but two interceptions.

If there's one bright spot for the Patriots in this game it's how they got the lead in the first place. Maye's legs were a factor, especially in the red zone, but the highlight was rookie running back TreVeyon Henderson. He once again showed his big play ability, who had a 52-yard touchdown run late in the second quarter that should have marked the beginning of the end of this game. It was a well-blocked run, with Henderson hitting the jets as he crossed the line of scrimmage untouched.

As the offense was spinning its wheels in the second half Henderson once again provided a spark, almost singlehandedly. On the first play after the Bills scored to take the lead for the first time in the game, Henderson got the ball on a toss to the right. With nowhere to go he cut the run all the way back to the left leaving just him and Maye with two defenders to take care of. Maye got out in front and set one block, with Henderson again getting to top gear to outrun the remaining defenders for a 65-yard score.

The next step for Henderson will be finding more consistency. Outside of those two runs he carried the ball 12 times for just 31 yards (he finished with 14 carries for 148 yards). That could be where Rhamondre Stevenson is more of a factor, but after carrying the ball six times for 50 yards in the first half the Patriots went away from him in the second half. His only touch was a short swing pass late in the third quarter.