Photo courtesy of Adrian Kraus/AP

The Buffalo Bills proved last night that when it comes to talent, they are a much better team than the Patriots.

Bill Belichick tried to bridge that gap this off-season by going on an uncharacteristic spending spree but last night was proof that whatever Belichick did last off-season, wasn’t enough.

I am not going to sit here and do a roster comparison. I think anyone who watched that game last night could see the areas the Bills are better than the Patriots.

New England has some pieces to work with but if they are going to compete with the Bills moving forward, Belichick needs to upgrade the roster in several key areas, specifically the defense.

The Bills racked up 482 yards of total offense last night and Josh Allen completed 21 of 25 passes for 308 yards and five touchdown passes. The Patriots couldn’t generate an effective pass rush and even worse, they got run over by a statistically average running game.

It wasn’t just the defense. The offense was no better. The Patriots couldn’t get their running game going and the lack of a big play receiver was evident. Perhaps that’s the biggest difference between these two teams right now. Buffalo has speed and can make big plays on offense. The Patriots have no speed and very little big play capability.

It was most evident on one of the Patriots scoring drives when it took them 11 plays to score. Conversely, one of Buffalo’s seven scoring drives only took them 4 plays. That is all you need to know in regards to where these two teams are right now.

Can the Patriots close the gap between them and the Bills? Sure, but it may take more than one off-season. The Patriots will have roughly $21 million in cap space this off-season. That is not a lot and they don’t have much cap flexibility either. The 2021 team will be your 2022 team with some rookie additions in essence.

If Bill Belichick was looking for a challenge later on in his coaching career, he found one. The challenge is closing the gap between his team and the Bills. The gap is pretty wide right now and given the current state of the two rosters, it may never be closed.