ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (WKBW) — In the Buffalo Bills' first loss of the season, the offense turned the ball over three times, the team committed countless penalties, and their former star wide receiver had one of his best games in years. Other than that, how was the play, Mrs. Lincoln?
We’ll start with the offense, because it feels like the defense did enough to get a win on Sunday night. That doesn’t mean they were great, but the offense, at least to me, was the bigger issue.
The obvious thing to look at was the Bills' three turnovers, including two fumbles and a costly red-zone interception from Josh Allen. The red zone turnover likely wiped points off the board, and in this game, an extra three points could’ve been the difference.
Allen said after the game, it wasn’t a poor decision, but he just threw a bad ball. On the first fumble, Allen tried to hand it off to Dawson Knox on an end around but the duo botched the exchange. The other fumble was just a completely avoidable play from Keon Coleman, who let the ball hit the turf when trying to shed a tackle. That mistake happened near the Bills' own end zone and led to three free points for the Patriots.
As for the penalties, that was absurd. The Bills continually made it harder on themselves because they continued to play from behind the sticks. It was especially sloppy in the first half, with nine accepted penalties. The Bills continued to make it harder on themselves and dug themselves into a hole that was too deep to climb out of.
And then there was Stefon Diggs, who looked like the star wide receiver he was for four seasons in Buffalo. He was almost the Patriots' entire offense on Sunday night, and for good reason. He caught 10 passes on 12 targets for 146 yards. The other six Patriots pass catchers combined for 127 yards.
To the Patriots' credit, they continued to capitalize on the Bills' mistakes and their second-year quarterback Drake Maye was especially impressive. He moved the ball consistently down the field, was able to make big plays off script, and didn’t make any big mistakes.
So what did we learn from this game, how much should Bills fans be concerned, and where do they go from here? You can watch our entire postgame conversation at the top of the page.
