One step forward, two steps back has been the theme of the 2024 Patriots season and it was on full display Sunday against Buffalo in Orchard Park.
New England jumped out to a 14-0 lead, but melted down in the second half with three turnovers, giving up 17 points en route to a 24-21 loss.
Drake Maye had 281 yards passing on a 22-36 clip with two touchdowns and a critical interception. Rhamondre Stevenson ran 12 times for 60 yards and a score and Kayshon Boutte led the team with a five-catch, 95-yard, one-touchdown performance.
As a team, the Pats actually out-gained the Bills 379-324. New England went 7-12 on third down while holding the Bills to 4-11 and Josh Allen had a pedestrian 154 yards, but some ill-advised coaching decisions and the turnovers ultimately led to another disappointment.
“Never feel good after a loss,” said Jerod Mayo. “Our expectations still remain high and we’ll get better. We’ll learn from this and we’ll move forward…we always talk about winning the turnover battle and unfortunately we weren’t able to do that today. That’s a good football team on the road, hostile environment…can’t do it.
“These guys have been coming to work every single day regardless of what the record is as true professionals. I appreciate that. Look, hopefully it leads to some wins here the last couple of weeks.”
Stunningly, the Pats led by seven at the half, but that quickly changed when the Bills went on a nine-play, 68-yard drive to open the third quarter. The waltz ended with a four-yard TD pass from Allen to James Cook (11 rushes, 100 yards, 2 TD) to make it 14-14.
Two plays later, Stevenson’s fumble issues returned as he coughed it up at the Patriots’ 37. Buffalo ended up getting three out of it on a 50-yard Tyler Bass field goal, giving the Bills their first lead of the day at 17-14.
Alex Van Pelt had a perfectly-timed screen call on 3rd-&-8 to get the offense down to the Buffalo 16 on the next possession, but Maye lofted a pass to the front right pylon that was easily picked off, killing momentum yet again. All of that followed a fantastic play by Maye earlier in the drive, rolling to his right and throwing deep back across the middle for Boutte for 22-yards.
“I’ve got to do better,” said Maye. “Do more, make better throws and give our guys chances because they’re playing their butts off.”
The Bills carried the three-point lead into the fourth and punted early, but with the Pats backed up at their own 12, Maye whizzed a backwards pass off the shoulder pad of Stevenson. The Bills easily recovered it for a touchdown for a sudden 10-point-lead.
A delay of game on 3rd-&-1 led to a 4th-&-8 incompletion from Maye looking for Henry and a punt with eight minutes left. The decision to punt from Mayo facing 4th-&-5 at the New England 46 was puzzling to put it nicely, as Buffalo then ran four minutes off the clock and punted it back with just 4:29 remaining.
“To me, it’s a field position thing,” Mayo said when asked about it. He was then pressed on it a couple questions later.
“For me, it’s all about…our timeouts especially at that point in time are definitely important. When you have three timeouts at the end of the game, you have a chance to get the ball back.”
Maye put together quite a drive to keep hope alive, converting a 4th-&-1 with. 14-yard run and making a phenomenal throw deep over the middle to Austin Hooper for 25-yards. The Bills also helped out quite a bit with an unnecessary roughness call and several pass interferences calls, gifting the Patriots a couple 1st-&-goal opportunities. Maye fumbled the ball on 2nd-&-goal and had to fall on it with time continuing to tick and the Pats sitting on three timeouts.
Finally, Maye hit Hunter Henry with 1:13 left to cut it to 24-21. The 75-yard drive ended up taking 11 plays and 3:16 off the clock. Buffalo recovered the ensuing onside kick – which also could be questioned – and sealed the win.
“It was a good onside kick. We didn’t come up with it and that was the decision I made,” Mayo said.
As everyone expected, New England jumped out to a 14-0 lead. The Patriots out-gained Buffalo 239-139 in the first half, head 17 first down’s to the Bills’ eight and held the ball for 20:20 while Buffalo had it for just 9:40 of the first 30 minutes.
After a strong kick off return from Antonio Gibson to start the game, Maye had two big third down throws on part of a six-play, 58-yard drive that ended with a 28-yard TD dime down the right sideline to Boutte. That was the second third down throw. The first was an eight-yard dart to Hunter Henry with pressure in his face to move the Pats down to the Bills’ 48.
After forcing a punt, New England marched 91-yards over the next 9:57. Another massive third down connection for Maye and Henry – this time for 21-yards – helped extend the drive as did an encroachment penalty on Buffalo to end the first quarter. Less than a minute into the second, Stevenson pulled off his best Corey Dillon impression, bowling over defenders on the way to a 14-yard TD run and a 14-0 lead.
Buffalo immediately responded with a 46-yard James Cook touchdown run four plays later. After a Pats punt, Allen chucked up a deep ball on the ensuing drive that was picked off in the end zone by Marte Mapu, but he chose to take it out of the end zone and ultimately pinned the offense at the one-yard line.
Mayo chose to coach like his job was potentially on the line when facing 4th-&-1 at the Pats’ 23, running a fake punt with a direct snap to Dell Pettus, who got the first down. New England still ultimately punted on the drive and even had to call a timeout immediately after the fake, killing any momentum they had, but it was a small step towards seeing Mayo truly get aggressive.
Buffalo reached its own 44 in the final two minutes, but had to punt and the teams went into the locker rooms with the Pats up 14-7. Although, a pass over the middle to Boutte in the final seconds turned into a bit of a pulse-pounding hook-and-later play until the Bills finally snuffed it out.
“The guys were ready,” Mayo said of the fast start. “In the locker room, I felt like the guys were ready to go. They went out there and started fast. Now, we’ve got to do the same thing in the second half and put them together.”
So now, with two games left at Gillette Stadium in what’s been another miserable season for fans, is Mayo’s job really on the line? Did the team’s fast start already save him? Did the brutal clock management and turnovers in the second half put him further on the hot seat?
All fair questions, but Maye is having none of it. If it’s up to him, things stay status quo heading into 2025.
“I think it’s a bunch…the conversations about our coaching staff and stuff like that, I think it’s some BS to be quite honest,” he said. “Coach Mayo, those guys…like I’ve said, we’ve got his back. He’s coached us hard. He wants to win, we all want to win. We’re all frustrated. AVP’s been, I feel like calling great past weeks. We’re just plays away.
“We keep fighting. Shoot, we’re not going to make the playoffs. We’re out of the race and these guys keep coming in…frustrating when you don’t score and they’ve got energy at practice, energy coming into the game. We want to win. There’s guys not even playing that are yelling on the sidelines and wanting to win. So, I think we’re building something good, building something that feels right here and I’m proud to be a Patriot.”