Ahead of his first training camp as Patriots head coach in 2025, Mike Vrabel explained that he was judging his team’s performances by three distinct categories: the good, the bad, and the s—t that gets you beat. If Vrabel looks at his team through those specific categorizations, we shall follow his lead.
For a second straight season, the New England Patriots headed into Buffalo as underdogs only to manage to steal a victory from the Bills. The 29-26 win on Sunday was the Patriots’ second of the year
and brought them within one game of their previously-undefeated division rivals.
With that said, let’s dive into our weekly breakdown of the good and the not-so-good from the win in Buffalo.
The good: Mental toughness
Week 4 is admittedly early to claim that a team may or may not have its back against the proverbial wall, but in the case of this year’s Patriots it very much felt like it heading into Sunday. Coming off a lopsided defeat, there were major questions about their offense and particularly quarterback Drake Maye. Needless to say, a loss in Buffalo — especially in similar fashion as last week’s versus Jacksonville — would have only amplified the noise.
That very much did not happen. The Patriots played their most complete game of the season, and showed some championship-caliber mental toughness along the way.
They overcame missing several of their most impactful players. They overcame two more turnovers. They overcame a five-point deficit in the fourth quarter. They overcame one of the best teams and quarterbacks in football, who had entered the contest with a perfect 3-0 record and having never lost a game at their new stadium.
They also got valuable contributions from some of their most-criticized players this year such as Maye, wide receiver Romeo Doubs, tight end Hunter Henry, and kicker Andy Borregales.
Unlike the last few weeks, and especially the Jaguars game, the Patriots looked more confident and within themselves. It also helped that they had an excellent plan on both sides of the ball, and besides those two giveaways were able to keep errors at a minimum.
“I think that gets built throughout the week, how you feel about certain plays, certain looks or how things looked in practice,” Mike Vrabel said. “That’s all we want to try to do, is what the players feel they have confidence in, to be able to run with speed, be aggressive and be decisive. That’s why we put the plays in, that those are the ones that we feel like they have confidence in, and then they practice them throughout the week. That’s what everybody’s striving for and that’s what we’ll have to try to continue to do moving forward in order to improve.”
The bad: Offensive line play
Offensive line play has been a mixed bag for the Patriots so far this season, and Sunday’s outing against a talented Bills front was more of the same. Granted, having to start a third-stringer at right guard did not make m matters any easier for the team, but the issues extended beyond Ben Brown.
The left side in particular — previously the strength of the unit — combined to surrender 11 quarterback pressures, including a sack given up by guard Alijah Vera-Tucker. The rest of the line fared marginally better but still gave up five disruptions, including three by Brown (although one of those should have been flagged for defensive illegal hands to the face). All in all, Drake Maye was under duress on 20 of his 42 dropbacks.
In addition, there were two botched exchanges between center Jared Wilson and Maye, and some uneven run-blocking. The Patriots did finish with 145 yards on the ground, but only averaged 3.3 yards per run and -0.08 expected points added when giving the ball to their running backs.
The s—t that gets you beat: Defensive X-plays
Before speaking about the big plays given up by the Patriots defense on Sunday, a word on their game plan against MVP-caliber quarterback Josh Allen. It was excellent. Between a sensible use of zone coverage, disguises and pressure looks, coordinator Zak Kuhr — like his offensive companion, Josh McDaniels — had his unit ready to go while also calling a very good game.
That being said, sometimes you just have to tip your hat. Namely, to Allen, James Cook, and the Bills offense for still find a way to make plays. Ideally, though, you would like to see fewer of the big-play variety.
The Bills had three explosive explosive runs on the day of 10 yards or more, and also hit five explosive passes gaining more than 20 yards (they could have had a sixth but Joshua Palmer failed to reel a deep pass in). Some of those explosive plays were just the offense out-performing their defense, and against an elite opponent there is little you can do against those especially with the likes of Christian Gonzalez and Christian Barmore out due to injury.
However, the Patriots’ tackles also was suspect on multiple occasions to increase the damage. Take the 50-yard Khalil Shakir’s 50-yard catch-and-run in the second quarter, a play that saw him break a tackle and pick up an extra 29 yards afterwards.
In addition, Buffalo managed to go 6-for-12 on third down and 1-for-1 on fourth down.
