Well, that was ugly. The New England Patriots and their fans entered the Wild Card round expecting a hard fought contest against their division rivals, the Buffalo Bills. Instead, the Bills destroyed the Patriots, ending their season on quite a sour note in the process.
With a final score of 47-17, this game was never competitive. The Bills, led by star quarterback Josh Allen, moved the ball up and down the field at will against New England’s defense. And despite rookie quarterback Mac Jones‘ best efforts, the Patriots offense was never going to be able to keep pace with Buffalo in a shootout.
It’s a very tough end to what was overall an extremely encouraging 2021-22 season for the Patriots. It would have been one thing if they made the Bills work for their win, but this game was never even close. It was easily the worst loss of the season, and is one of the worst losses of the Bill Belichick-era as well.
It’s tough to remember this in the aftermath of an absolute demolition like the one we just saw, but the Patriots are moving in the right direction for the most part. But it’s clear that even with the progress they made this past season, there’s still a lot of work to do before this team elevates themselves to a championship contender. Before we fully embrace the offseason however, let’s take a look at three key takeaways from the Patriots Wild Card bout.
New England Patriots takeaway No. 3: Coaching staff was unprepared for this game
I think we can safely rule out Bill Belichick as a Coach of the Year contender at this point, correct? Yes, this season was quite an impressive turnaround for New England, but the Patriots just lost four of their final five games, going from the top seed in the AFC to flaming out in the Wild Card round. And it’s safe to say the final game of the season wasn’t exactly a coaching masterpiece from Belichick.
The in-game management, while ultimately irrelevant thanks to Buffalo scoring practically everytime they touched the ball, ensured this game was over before it even started. Belichick opted to punt on 4th & 1 on New England’s second drive despite the fact the Bills had effortlessly scored on both of their first two drives. It was not much of a surprise to watch Buffalo go down and score yet again on their ensuing drive.
Belichick just simply wasn’t aggressive enough early in this game to make Patriots fans believe they even wanted to win. They punted again on 4th & 8 on their next drive despite finding themselves right around midfield, and Buffalo turned that into yet another touchdown. Belichick finally went for it on 4th & 5 the next time out, but by then the game was effectively over, with the score being 27-0.
The defensive gameplan was also just awful all around. With the secondary depleted, somebody in the coaching staff thought it would be a good idea to challenge Allen with man coverage looks seemingly all night long. Whoever it was should be fired, as Allen torched the Pats secondary all night long. We will take a closer look at that later on however.
New England’s coaching staff wasn’t prepared at all coming into the game, and then promptly exacerbated the issue with poor in-game management as well. The coaching staff had a good season overall, turning the Patriots into an overachieving playoff team, but they did not step up to the plate for this one, and it’s a big reason why this team’s stint in the postseason was so short.
New England Patriots takeaway No. 2: Mac Jones cannot be blamed for this loss
You are probably going to read something over the next few days pinning this loss on Mac Jones. I would advise you close out of that tab rather than wasting your time reading that, because it’s blatantly incorrect. On a night where there really wasn’t anything to be happy about, Jones provided Patriots fans with the only silver lining of the game.
Now, I’m not going to act like this was some otherworldly performance from Jones. He posted a fairly mediocre line (24/38, 232 YDS, 2 TD, 2 INT), but given the circumstances he faced, this was not a bad outing at all. It also wasn’t his fault the Pats defense couldn’t do anything against the Bills on the other side too.
Jones fought hard throughout this game, even as the deficit continued to increase. For the most part, he moved the ball pretty well, and it would have been interesting to see how this game would have played out had Buffalo not scored everytime they touched the football. He found Kendrick Bourne for a pair of touchdown passes on fourth down in the second half, the second of which was a particularly pretty throw.
Jones threw two interceptions, but neither was that bad. His first pick was the result of a fantastic play by Micah Hyde, as he took away what would have surely been a touchdown to Nelson Agholor by undercutting him at the last possible second. The second pick was a tip drill that was barely scooped up by Levi Wallace. Jones could have thrown the ball a bit farther in front of Hunter Henry, but it was still unlucky.
Jones could have asked out at any point in the second half, and nobody would have faulted him. But he stayed with it, and ultimately led a pair of touchdown drives late in the game that made you believe that there was at least one person wearing a white uniform that wanted to win the game. While the result didn’t go his way, the Patriots are in good hands for the foreseeable future with Jones under center for them, and things can only get better from here.
New England Patriots takeaway No. 1: The defense just didn’t show up
The real culprit for this loss is 150 percent the Patriots defense. They might have allowed 47 points, which isn’t the highest total in NFL history or something, but I can honestly say that this was probably the worst defensive performance I have seen in the NFL in my lifetime.
The Bills scored touchdowns on all seven of their possessions that didn’t end in kneel downs. They converted on six of their seven third downs. The one they didn’t was a kneel down. There was never a point in this game where I was convinced the Patriots defense was going to get a stop, and based on their performance, they probably felt the same way.
I mean, where do we even start with this monstrosity of a performance? There wasn’t a single thing to be pleased about from this unit. Maybe it was Devin McCourty, who led the team with eight tackles and generally seemed to be the only player who showed any desire to prevent Buffalo for scoring. That’s really digging for something, and ultimately him leading the team in tackles just shows how bad this outing was for the Pats.
Sticking with the secondary for now, this was easily one of the worst showings of coverage I have ever seen. Allen will get credit for carving the Patriots secondary up all night long, but the Bills probably could have put in their punter (who conveniently got the night off) and he would have had the same statline. Allen’s receivers were getting so much separation that these throws were embarrassingly easy for him, and he proved it time and time again.
It may not have made much of a difference in the grand scheme of things, but the attrition to New England’s secondary finally caught up to them. Jalen Mills missed this game with COVID, Kyle Dugger was basically playing with one hand, and Jonathan Jones‘ presence was dearly missed in this one. I truly wish the best for Joejuan Williams and Myles Bryant, but I hope I never have to witness them suit up for the Patriots ever again after this one.
Only adding to the woes of this game was the Patriots inability to shut down Buffalo’s ground game. Devin Singletary ran for two touchdowns, Allen added 66 yards on six attempts, and nobody on defense showed any intent to stop them. New England lined up weaker fronts to try to slow down Allen in the air, but that gamble failed miserably.
One last issue that I have with this one was the complete lack of tackling ability all over the field. Losing Ja’Whaun Bentley early certainly hurt, but McCourty should never be leading the team in tackles. Dont’a Hightower has had a great career in New England, but this should be the final game of his career, as he just had no impact on the game in his attempt to replace Bentley.
You can blame whoever you want on defense for this loss, and you’d have a point. But overall, this was more about the struggles of the unit as a whole rather than one single player. The Patriots did a good job fixing up their offense this season, but they need to usher in some big changes for their defense this upcoming offseason.