The Bills saw their perfect start come to an end on Sunday, dropping a 29-26 game at Highmark Stadium against the New England Patriots.
Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen's late interception ended the Bills' chance of a comeback.
Down three points with 74 seconds to play on 2nd-and-6 at their own 40-yard line, with the ball and three timeouts in-hand, Allen took the snap needing a game-managed drive to run down the clock and force overtime via a field goal, or win it with a touchdown.
Instead, unblocked Pats defender Dre'Mont Jones came right at the QB for New England, but Allen spun and used his free arm to push away and escaped the 6-foot-3, 268-pound tackle. Jones ended up on the grass, and Allen, now upright with a clean lane, immediately hurried
to fire a deep shot down the left side to Josh Palmer in double coverage. Safety Craig Woodson went up to make a high-point catch and came down with it at the New England 19.
JOSH ALLEN AVOIDS THE SACK
— ClutchWire (@ClutchWireHQ) October 4, 2026
BUT THROWS AN INTERCEPTION pic.twitter.com/Nv9SInqqee
“Should throw that one out of bounds, live to fight another day,” a visibly disappointed looking Allen said to the media after the game. "We hurt ourselves tonight. Offense, defense, special teams, everybody. We all feel like we could all play better. These ones sting. The division ones sting. I mean, it feels like a two-game swing, and we've got to find a way to to learn from this and move it in the back of our brain, and learn from it and move on."
The pick was not Allen's only questionable moment. Earlier, with the Bills pinned near their own goal line, he avoided a safety by flipping the ball backward, underhanded, with no idea where it was headed. It somehow fell safely to the turf, and no flag for intentional grounding came out.
Allen's final line read 253 yards on 23-of-33 passing with a touchdown and a pick, and he managed just four yards on five carries, perhaps due to a hit on the knew from a Los Angeles defender the week prior.. His lone bright spot on the ground was a two-yard rushing touchdown, his seventh of the season, which moved him past Andre Reed and Thurman Thomas into first place in Bills franchise history.
Still, Buffalo did not look the part of a Super Bowl contender on Sunday, but instead like the Bills-of-old before this season's new stadium, new head coach, new talent, and new Nickel City uniforms. The offense sputtered despite phenomenal individual plays by a handful of Bills starters.
"If we protect the football, we win the game, it's not very hard, right?" head coach Joe Brady said after the loss. "And we had two in two-minute drill situations… But we got to clean it up, or it's going to continue to show up."
The team now sits at 3-1 after the loss, though it remains in first place in the AFC East while New England climbed to 2-2. It marks the first loss of the Joe Brady era and first to a divisional opponent in the first AFC East matchup of the season between the clubs.
After starting 3-0, the Bills looked messy in a comeback win against the Chargers at home last Sunday in Orchard Park, in what proved to be a forecast for their third home field matchup of the season hosting New England.
They'll hit the road for a schedule that doesn't get any easier, next facing off against the Rams in Los Angeles on Monday, Oct. 12 at SoFi Stadium (8:15 p.m. ET, ESPN/ABC) before heading to Las Vegas to take on the new-look Raiders the following week.
Allen and the Bills will look to clean things up to look the part of a Super Bowl caliber roster as they face a couple viable playoff contenders.
This article originally appeared on Bills Wire: What Bills QB Josh Allen said about costly interception in Patriots loss
