In The Super Wild Card Round, The Pats Got Blown Out By The Bills 47-17 So Their Season Is Over

 

    Seeing the Patriots (10-8 overall, 6-3 away) lose tonight at Highmark Stadium to the Bills (12-6 overall, 7-3 home) certainly was not a surprise to any realistic Pats fan. However, the way that Buffalo completely ran over them to the tune of 47-17 was pretty scary considering that Bills quarterback Josh Allen (21-of-25 for 308 yards, 5 TDs; 66 yards rushing) is only 25-years-old meaning that he and his team are probably going to dominate New England and the AFC East for years to come. For the Patriots, losing in the Super Wild Card Round was fitting since frankly they played like anything but a playoff-worthy club in the past month. This loss meant that they finished the 2021-22 campaign by losing four of their last five games. 

    In his first NFL postseason start, New England's rookie QB Mac Jones (24-of-38 for 232 yards, 2 TDs, 2 INTs) was OK. The real issue is the no-show from almost everyone around him: namely any skill position players on offense not named Kendrick Bourne (7 catches, 77 yards, 2 TDS) and the very overrated Patriots defense that for the second game in a row against Buffalo failed to force a single punt. How is that possible? Finally, if we didn't already know this, a beating like that serves as a painful reminder that head coach Bill Belichick and this team really are nothing special when they don't have Tom Brady on their side. Safety Micah Hyde and cornerback Levi Wallace each had an interception for the Bills as their defense looked much faster than New England's on the frozen field and they also seemed to hit way harder than them. 

    As usual during this depressing slide by the Pats, they did not even give themselves a chance as they got buried early and with their pedestrian offense, they cannot possibly rally to win against any decent (or in this case very good) opponent. Bills tight end Dawson Knox (5 catches, 89 yards) caught two touchdowns in the first quarter and running back Devin Singletary (16 carries, 81 yards) ran for a pair of touchdowns in the second quarter as Buffalo opened up a stunning 27-3 halftime lead. In terms of margin, it was the worst defeat of Belichick's storied postseason career and it was also the most points that his team had ever allowed in a playoff game. The ghost of Emmanuel Sanders caught a 34-yard touchdown from Allen early in the third quarter which made it 33-3. New England showed a hint of pride as Bourne caught a three-yard touchdown from Jones later in the frame but it was long over in the frigid cold by then. 

    In the garbage time fourth quarter, wide receiver Gabriel Davis caught a touchdown from Allen and the ultimate disrespect from the Bills came when Allen's performance was capped by a one-yard touchdown pass to some nobody backup offensive tackle named Tommy Doyle (who I checked, shockingly isn't from Southie). Yes, the Bills were clearly running up the score and having Allen in there that late was a stupid risk but this is the same stuff that Brady & Belichick did to them forever. It doesn't feel so great being on this side of it now, huh? God bless Bourne as he caught a four-yard touchdown from Jones to at least send the rookie into the offseason with a glimmer of confidence. Buffalo advances to the Divisional Round next weekend and they look like a serious Super Bowl contender-granted it was hard to gauge with the way that New England flopped this evening. 

    So where does Belichick and Co. go from here? They are now a million miles behind Buffalo who humbled them twice in the past few weeks. They have absolutely no clue how to stop Allen or even contain him anymore. Jones is the main positive from this season and there were some other bright spots like Bourne but for the most part, this will leave a rotten taste in our mouths for a long time since they crumbled so epically after the bye week. It was not that long ago that New England was the No. 1 seed in the AFC and thought to be a legitimate contender. Yikes, how wrong we all were about that. There are still countless issues in all three phases of the game and it feels like a bunch of prominent assistant coaches (Jerod Mayo, Josh McDaniels, etc) could be gone tomorrow for heading coaching jobs around the league and who could blame them? Plus I wouldn't be surprised to see some of their older veterans like Dont'a Hightower, Devin McCourty and Matthew Slater all retire since what else do they have to prove at this juncture of their great careers? Without another big infusion of talent via the draft and free agency, it looks like the Pats will be stuck in NFL purgatory (as a middling team) for the near future and that is a terrible reality to accept. 

With The Regular Season Winding Down, The Pats Are Fading Away After A 33-21 Loss To The Bills

 

    The ups and downs of this season for the Patriots (9-6 overall, 3-5 home) have been nothing short of insane: they started a hapless 2-4 then reeled off seven straight wins before losing last week at Indy (9-6) and then falling 33-21 to Buffalo (9-6 overall, 5-3 away) in a huge divisional showdown this afternoon at Gillette Stadium. With a chance to put the Colts loss behind them not to mention to sweep the season series with the Bills, the Pats did a face plant in a major way. Unlike New England's fluky 14-10 wind-and-weather aided win in Buffalo three weeks ago, this felt like a more true representation of these teams at the moment. Bills quarterback Josh Allen (30-of-47 for 314 yards, 3 TDs; 64 yards rushing) was unstoppable and Patriots rookie quarterback Mac Jones (14-of-32 for 145 yards, 2 INTs) was predictably no match for him. With two games left now in the regular season, Buffalo has the inside track to another AFC East crown. A few weeks ago, the Pats seemed to have a legitimate shot at the No. 1 seed in the AFC, now they will have to scramble to hang on to a playoff spot. 

    To say that New England's overrated defense could not get off the field was not a bland statement but rather a depressing fact. This was the first time in Pats head coach Bill Belichick's exceptionally long and successful career that the opposing team never had to punt against him. Buffalo simply wore down the Patriots as they racked up eight more first downs (28-20), they possessed the ball for more than 10 minutes longer than the home team (35:09-24:51) and their defense forced two turnovers (2 INTs by safety Micah Hyde) while the Bills never coughed it up. With wide receivers Cole Beasley and Gabriel Davis both out due to Covid-19 protocols, you figured that the Patriots could focus on Stefon Diggs (7 catches, 85 yards, TD) and nobody else would be able to do much against them. Wrong. Wide receiver Isaiah McKenzie set a career-high in catches (game-high 11) and yards (game-high 125) as Belichick watched undrafted second-year cornerback Myles Bryant repeatedly get burned by McKenzie. 

    After a terrible start doomed them against Indianapolis, you knew that the Patriots would play much better to start this game. Except that never really happened. Running back Damien Harris (18 carries, 103 yards, 3 TDs) was fantastic for New England but the same could not be said about any of his teammates on this day. Buffalo had the lone score of the first quarter: a three-yard touchdown pass from Allen to McKenzie and kicker Tyler Bass added the point after for a 7-0 lead. Harris responded with a 16-yard touchdown run (and Nick Folk PAT) to tie it up at seven early in the second quarter. Buffalo's issues in the red zone meant that Bass had to kick a 25-yard field goal for a 10-7 advantage. Allen zipped a sweet 12-yard touchdown pass to Diggs with 1:45 left in the first half. Bass' point after made it 17-7 in favor of the Bills at halftime. 

    Once again New England's defense held strong in the red zone and Bass had to salvage things with a 34-yard field goal which gave Buffalo a 20-7 lead early in the third quarter. Harris answered with a one-yard touchdown run late in the third quarter that coupled with Folk's kick trimmed Buffalo's lead to 20-14. The Bills closed strong in the fourth quarter thanks to a two-yard touchdown run by running back Devin Singletary but they failed on the two-point conversion attempt to leave it at 26-14. Harris' last touchdown run (of the 8-yard variety) and Folk's final PAT brought the Patriots within five points but Allen and Co. proceeded to march down the field methodically and clinch the victory with a two-yard shuffle pass from Allen to tight end Dawson Knox. That backbreaking play coupled with Bass' point after sent most of Gillette streaming for the exits (and the endless traffic in the parking lots and on Route 1, good times!). 

    The only positive news that I can think of for the Pats is that they have the good fortune to host the Jaguars (2-13 overall, 0-7 road) next Sunday afternoon (1, CBS)-their first contest in 2022. That is about as close to a guaranteed win as you will find in the NFL which is otherwise impossible to predict from week-to-week. New England will definitely have an eye on Monday Night Football tomorrow (8:15, ESPN) as Miami (7-7) visits New Orleans (7-7). Other than the Chiefs, the Dolphins are the second-hottest club in the league as they have surprisingly won six straight games. A triumph for the Saints would go a long way to bolstering the Bills and Patriots' playoff hopes. Most importantly, Jones has to get some of his confidence back because he's been a mess in these consecutive losses. I was never under any illusion that he will be a superstar but I think that Jones could be a very solid game manager type (I know, everybody hates that phrase) in the NFL for years to come. This is also not all on him either since almost all of the other Patriots have struggled recently too.