The Buffalo Bills entered Sunday’s game against the New England Patriots in need of a win to keep their slim hopes of an AFC East Division title alive. After 24 minutes of play, Buffalo trailed 21-0. Things did not look good. A Bills touchdown stabilized things a bit, but the Patriots answered with a field goal before the half to give themselves a 24-7 lead at intermission.
And then, Buffalo just flipped a switch and dominated the game. The Bills scored on their first four second-half possessions, taking a 28-24 lead and wrestling control of the game back. After allowing a long touchdown run to TreVeyon Henderson, his second score of 50-plus yards on the day New England retook the lead. However, Buffalo’s offense could not be stopped, and they scored again to give themselves the 35-31 lead, a lead they would not relinquish.
A game like that one is not something most cardiologists would recommend, but for the Bills, the outcome was exactly what the doctor ordered. Buffalo sits a game back of the Patriots, who still own the tiebreaker at present, but they are now within striking distance of another AFC East crown.
It took some genuinely Herculean efforts from multiple players on the Bills’ roster to pull the team out of a 21-point hole, and many of those players directly involved with the comeback were among our five players to watch this week.
Here’s how our fivesome fared in last Sunday’s victory.
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QB Josh Allen
When looking at Allen’s total numbers (19-of-28 passing for 193 yards with three touchdowns; 48 rushing yards on 11 carries), a boxscore scout might suggest that it wasn’t any sort of special day for Buffalo’s quarterback. However, three of the Bills’ offensive possessions started in New England territory — shoutout to outstanding kickoff return man Ray Davis — which meant that the Bills didn’t have much ground to cover on three big drives.
More importantly, I’m less concerned with an Allen day that doesn’t see many passing yards when it involves a clean sheet. If this Bills team wins the turnover battle, they’re nearly indestructible, so watching Allen take what the defense gave him time and again was a thing of beauty.
He also made a few throws that were just absurd. One came on a fourth down, as he placed a slightly-underthrown ball right into Khalil Shakir’s bread-basket. Marcus Jones interfered with Shakir, and he and many Patriots fans need to brush up on the rules about simultaneous possession, but when both men had the ball on the ground at the same time, it was correctly ruled a 37-yard completion and a first down.
Allen also threw an absolute dart to Dawson Knox on a 3rd & Goal from the 15 for his third and final touchdown pass of the day. Allen hit James Cook III on a Joe Brady special — mesh traffic, AKA “slither” — to open the scoring for the Bills in the second quarter. He also hit Knox for a touchdown off a play-action fake to open the second-half scoring, a play which brought Buffalo to within 10 points at 24-14 early in the third quarter.
In what many have considered a “down” year for the reigning NFL MVP, all Allen has done is throw for 25 touchdowns, run for 12 more, pass for 3,276 yards, run for 535 more, and complete a career-high 70% of his passes. If only everyone’s “down” years were so good. Allen currently sits at 299 career combined touchdowns, and he’s also 290 passing yards away from becoming the second player in franchise history to pass for 30,000 yards in his career.
RB James Cook III
I wrote that Cook’s lack of success was one of the biggest issues I had with the game between these two teams in October, and through the first half, it looked like the game script might necessitate Cook fading to the background yet again. Trailing by 21, though, the Bills stuck with the run and stuck with their star running back, as well.
Cook carried seven times for 32 yards in the first half, adding two receptions for four yards, including the aforementioned touchdown catch. Knowing that the Bills were down for most of the game, it’s pretty cool to note that Cook carried it 15 times in the second half, gaining 75 yards and scoring twice, including one diving score where he somehow kept himself off the ground while crossing the goal-line. It was a very similar display of acrobatics to his fourth-down score in the AFC Championship Game last season against the Kansas City Chiefs. Cook also saw one more target in the passing game, but he was unable to catch it.
He finished his day with 22 rushes for 107 yards and those two touchdowns to go with two catches for four yards and another score. For the year, Cook has 1,415 rushing yards, which is the sixth-highest total for a single season in team history. A 100-yard game on Sunday will put him into O.J. Simpson territory, as “Juice” is the only player in Bills’ history to rush for 1,500 yards or more in a season, and he did it thrice. Cook would pass Travis Henry, who rushed for 1,438 yards in 2002, and Thurman Thomas, who rushed for 1,487 yards in 1992, in the process.
TE Dalton Kincaid
Right position, wrong player. Kincaid was third of Buffalo’s three tight ends in terms of overall snaps, as he appeared on just 25 snaps, or 36% of the team’s offensive total.
He was productive in those snaps, catching three of his four targets for 34 yards. His biggest grab came on a clutch third-down conversion late in the third quarter.
Buffalo trailed 24-21 and had just stopped New England. Facing a 3rd & 7 from their own 12-yard line, Allen stepped up, fired over the middle, and hit Kincaid for a 24-yard gain to extend the drive. That ended with a 14-yard strike to tight end Dawson Knox to give the Bills a 28-24 advantage.
Buffalo’s tight ends as a group combined for seven catches, 80 yards, and two touchdowns on nine targets. It may not have been a huge day for Kincaid, but he was great when called upon.
LB Matt Milano
Talk about a throwback performance. I don’t think I’ve seen Milano play a game like that since his All-Pro season in 2022.
Milano led the Bills in tackles, totaling 10 on the afternoon. He was a menace in the passing game, serving as the mirror/fire blitz player for much of the afternoon. He sacked quarterback Drake Maye twice in that role, and on one of those sacks, he drove right through Henderson to take him into Maye before downing the second-year quarterback.
He even forced his first fumble of the year, leveling old friend Mack Hollins, jarring the ball loose on a play that ended when the ball flew directly out of bounds. He even delivered one of those “message” hits I mentioned to Stefon Diggs, belly-flopping onto him after a short catch in such a way that it shocked me there was no personal foul called.
Speaking of those, Milano was called for a personal foul in a sideline spat after he was punched in the face by running back Rhamondre Stevenson. Milano was active on New England’s tight ends in the pass game, as well. It was a welcome sign that Buffalo’s longest-tenured defensive player performed that well.
CB Taron Johnson
Look, I know what many of you meant when you wrote that leaving Johnson as the main man covering Stefon Diggs was a recipe for disaster. Part of me even agreed with those of you who assumed that Diggs would feast yet again.
Instead, though, Johnson turned back the clock and performed about as well as he has all season. Diggs didn’t see his first target until well into the second quarter, and that was because he was bracketed by a pair of linebackers in Dorian Williams and Shaq Thompson.
Diggs was able to beat Johnson once on a third-down crossing route for a big gain and a conversion, but for the most part, No. 7 was up to the challenge of handling No. 8 this week.
Johnson totaled five tackles in the game, and while I think his performance guarding Diggs was the most impressive part of his day, he was equally good when handling tight end Hunter Henry. Those two players combined for four catches and 44 yards receiving on the day, a far cry from the 12 catches and 192 yards they totaled, bolstered by Diggs’ 10 catches and 146 yards, in the game in October.
Credit the Bills’ defensive staff for coming up with a plan to slow those guys down, but credit some of Buffalo’s venerable veterans — I’ll include Tre’Davious White here, as well, given that he had his first interception of the season — for stepping up and shutting the Patriots down when they needed to most.
