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It’s not hyperbole to call this the biggest win for the Patriots since 2019.
That year of course, was Tom Brady’s final season with New England. It was also the last time the team had a win as significant as the one it pulled off in Orchard Park on Sunday night.
With the whole country watching, the Patriots went into Highmark Stadium for the final time – a place the Bills hadn’t lost in 14 straight games – and earned a 23-20 win that came down to an Andy Borregales 52-yard field goal with 15 seconds remaining.
In his return to Buffalo, Stefon Diggs had a true No. 1 wide receiver performance, hauling in 10 balls for 146 yards. Drake Maye was also spectacular, giving the fans another reason to believe he’s the future of the franchise, making some remarkable off platform throws when the team needed a big play. Maye didn’t have a touchdown, but also didn’t turn the ball over while going 22-30 for 273 yards. The defense forced three turnovers and limited James Cook to 49 yards on the ground. Borregales kicked three field goals, including the game winner which would have been good from at least 60.
Now at 3-2 and 2-0 in the AFC East, the Pats are a game out of first place. Most importantly, it appears like the fans can finally start to believe again.
“This is their day,” Mike Vrabel said postgame when specifically asked why he feels it’s important to greet each and every player postgame, win or lose. “I’m happy for them. We challenge them all week. We push them. We coach them. Whether they think I’m an asshole during the week or not, I don’t know, but I’m going to try to coach the heck out of them all week and try to get them ready with the things I think are important for us to do.
“Try to get them to do them and then when they get to the game, it’s their day to go put all the hard work out there and I’m happy for them. I want to thank and congratulate each and every one of them. Everybody has a role. Everybody has a job and those jobs are critical. Whether that’s there trainer, the equipment manager, assistant coach offensive coordinator, starters, special teams players, backups, it takes everybody to come on the road – it especially takes everybody to win in this league – and I want to thank them for that.
“I like to see the look on their faces. I’m happy for them.”
The Pats led 6-3 at halftime after a wild and ugly opening 30 minutes. The Pats and Bills combined for three field goals, five punts and three fumbles in a first half that seemingly took forever.
Buffalo quickly took a 10-6 lead with a 10-play, 71-yard drive to open the third quarter, but this is where things are now much, much different for the Patriots.
New England had an immediate response on the ensuing drive, including a ridiculous rollout to the right from Maye and a launch of the ball to Diggs 32-yards downfield, setting up a 1st-&-goal at the four. Rhamondre Stevenson – who did fumble yet again early on – rumbled in to quickly put the Pats back up 13-10.
A week after making the play of the game with his punt return against Carolina, Marcus Jones came up with the biggest play to that point with an interception of Josh Allen at the Patriots 10-yard line to end Buffalo’s next drive late in the third.
Once again, a statement drive was coming from the offense.
Maye led an 11-play, 90-yard campaign over the next 5:43 and Stevenson capped it with a seven-yard touchdown run to make it 20-10 with 12:10 left.
The one glaring thing that still needs to get cleaned up is penalties (8/93 yards), but luckily Buffalo committed 11 for 90 yards. Two 15-yarders called against the Patriots on the following Buffalo drive helped usher the Bills downfield in just over four minutes.
Allen hit Keon Coleman for a two-yard TD to cut it back to three. New England immediately had to punt and suddenly, things got dicey.
The Bills marched 53 yards in 10 plays, but the defense eventually held strong just outside the red zone, forcing a game-tying field goal to make it 20-20 with 2:17 on the clock. That set the stage for Drake Maye’s next signature moment.
The offense took over at the New England 23 with 2:12 remaining after a TreVeyon Henderson return. On the very first snap, Maye stiff armed his way out of a sack and barely got a throw off to Diggs, who proceeded to take it 12 yards heading into the two minute warning. A 19-yard completion to Boutte and a five-yard run by Stevenson ultimately set up Borregales’ game winner with 15 seconds remaining on the clock.
The kick was Adam Vinatieri-esque, an absolute bomb right down the middle that was never in doubt.
One defensive stand later and the stunning statement victory was complete.
“I watched it halfway, saw it down the middle and I kind of just got excited, started celebrating a little bit,” said Borregales of the final kick, a kick Maye admitted he couldn’t watch. “At that point, I already knew it was going in…pretty much immediately,” Borragales added.
“Yeah, just give thanks to the good Lord, man, that was fun,” said Maye. “That was a tough one. It took everybody in that locker room. The guys came out and battled. Didn’t play the best in the first half, the defense helped us out. Getting back offensively, got some things going and two minute drive at the end to go win it, that’s what you want.”
The Patriots still have a long way to go to return to true championship contention, but if you watched the rest of the NFL on Sunday, you saw some really, really bad football throughout the day.
A return to the glory days may not be as far away as you think if the team continues to take massive steps forward like the one taken on Sunday night.
“We felt like we left a lot of plays out there, but a win is a win, we’ll take it, it’s in the division. Those kind of count for two sometimes,” said Diggs, who did admit that the return to Buffalo was “100%” personal.
“I was proud of the guys. I was proud of their approach during the week and then I knew it was going to be a test for us as far as the game.”