Patriots learning lessons from loss to Bills

Mike Vrabel and the Patriots have had three days to digest their 35-31 loss to the Bills on Sunday ahead of a Week 16 Sunday Night Football appearance at Baltimore on Dec. 21. It has allowed them to identify their struggles and fix them before the first of three final games of the 2025 season.

With an ample amount of time to self-evaluate their performance, would there be anything different Vrabel and the Patriots would do against the Bills?

“I don't think that there's anything that we would want to change or do differently,” Vrabel said. “We don't get to do do-overs. I think we've had a lot of success and we're going to try to get that same success on Sunday night.”

Victory seemed imminent for New England at halftime against Buffalo, leading 24-7 in what appeared to be a beatdown of the defending AFC East Champions in a game that could crown a new division winner. Instead of having memories of donning championship hats and t-shirts on the field at Gillette Stadium, the Bills gave the Patriots nightmares Sunday. They showed their dethronement wouldn’t so easy.

As was evident by Buffalo’s potent rushing attack, which posted 168 yards on 37 attempts. James Cook led his team with 107 yards for 22 rushes, two of which were touchdowns. Without starting defensive tackle Milton Williams, who is recovering from an ankle injury against the Jets, success of limiting opponent’s rushing totals have sharply declined. New England has given up 100 or more yards on the ground since Williams’ injury.

That will be increasingly important against a running back of star Derrick Henry’s caliber.

“Well a lot of that is just they pushed the line of scrimmage, and we have to be able to stay gap sound and be able to build a wall,” Vrabel said. “And again, when you get on the plus side of the 50, sometimes in that short field position they don't mind sticking with the run and going for it on fourth down. Can't let them run it in. And again, it's a huge challenge this week. I'm sure we'll see a lot of those runs that they did last week. See where we're at with them. That's usually what happens. So, that's what I told the team this morning.”

Vrabel’s comments about what his team learned against Buffalo also included advice for his offense, which scored only seven second-half points after a 24-point first half. Vrabel was critical of his offense after his team’s loss to the Bills, even discussing Drake Maye’s play when he was asked about how well defensive tackle Christian Barmore performed in place of an injured Milton Williams.

Maye — a candidate for the 2025 NFL MVP award — underwhelmed in a game against defending league MVP Josh Allen. Maye completed 14 of his 23 passes for 155 yards with an interception. It was his first game since Oct. 5, when he also faced off against the Bills, that Maye did not record a passing touchdown.

“I've said this for as long as I've been able to say it as a head football coach, there is no perfect play or perfect call,” Vrabel said. “There are good calls and there's not so good calls. And again, my reason for saying this is you don't want to have a call that gets in late. Those calls that are good are, they're in in a timely manner. The personnel group is in there. The players have repped it. They've seen it. They have answers for things that they could do. They have answers for things that were unscouted, which occur in every game. And so, we try to make sure that our calls that go into the players are appropriately that way.”