The Buffalo Bills clocked into work again during the 2026 NFL campaign and came out on the wrong side of things for the first time.
In Week 4, the Bills (3-1) took a messy 29-26 loss against the New England Patriots (2-2). Despite that, did the Bills earn high marks across the board for their effort?
With that, here are Bills Wire's Week 4 report card:
Pass offense: C-
Quarterback Josh Allen gets all the praise and high marks from us when he earns it. The same thing can be said here.
With his top receiver in DJ Moore (shoulder) out, Allen did not step up. And yes, he threw his team's last chance to get a win with his late interception.
Keeping the Bills out of the basement with this grade was Keon Coleman. The wideout had 116 yards and a touchdown.
Run defense: C+
Allen is a big
part of his team's rushing attack and he never got going. Allen did have a touchdown on a tush push play, but otherwise he was a zero rushing yards heading into the final quarter and finished with four yards on five carries.
The reason this grade outperforms the passing game is because running back James Cook... did actually put together good spells.
Early on, Cook was silent. The extra effort he gave on his 11-yard touchdown run seemed to give him sone juice because he finished with 6.3 yards per carry (75 total). That's a good number.
Pass defense: F
The Patriots had 29 points scored on offense through three games. They put up a 29 spot in one game against the Bills because Buffalo's secondary was terrible.
Christian Benford (foot) has struggled this year but it was clear the Bills missed him. Patriots quarterback Drake Maye was 22-for-37 passing for 269 yards with three touchdown passes. He was picked off by Dee Alford, but that was because of a luck bounce off a bobble.
Run defense: C+
We'll be gentle here. Maye is not known for running the ball all that often so his 6.8 yards per carry is a tough number to look at but you can understand that. It's actually a positive sign that Maye's 54 yards on the ground led the Patriots because Rhamondre Stevenson was held to only 47 yards.
This effort was really for nothing, though. The Bills could not stop the Pats' passing attack--so why would they run it?
Special teams: D+
Kicker Tyler Bass was penalized on a kickoff. A bullet was dodged, but that's an easy penalty to avoid.
Penalty woes continue on special teams as well, just like missed tackles. Patriots return man Marcus Jones had a 17-yard return that could've been worse.
In term's of Buffalo's returners, not much to be found either. Excitement around the addition of Greg Dortch is well gone.
This article originally appeared on Bills Wire: Report card: Bills lose 29-26 vs. Patriots in Week 4
