Allen leads Bills to first AFC East win of season over Patriots

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- At 6-5, the New England Patriots entered Thursday Night Football 2 games down the 8-3 Buffalo Bills. And portion the Bills were tied with the Miami Dolphins atop the AFC East, they were 0-2 successful the division.

The Bills handled the Patriots with easiness Thursday, picking up a 24-10 part triumph and pushing the Patriots further from playoff contention.

Buffalo Bills

For the archetypal clip since injuring his close elbow against the Jets successful Week 9, backmost Josh Allen stood adjacent midfield and threw passes successful pregame warmups. A measurement towards normalcy aft a afloat week of practice.

What followed successful the Bills' 24-10 triumph implicit the Patriots was similar. Buffalo looked much successful sync and person to the squad that enactment up dominating performances earlier the Week 7 bye, albeit against a struggling New England offense, and became the archetypal squad to bushed the Belichick-era Patriots by treble digits successful 3 consecutive games.

The Bills much than doubled the Patriots' clip of possession (38:08 to 21:52) and held connected to a 2nd 4th double-digit pb for the remainder of the game. Allen looked much successful control, completing 22 of 33 passes for 223 yards and 2 touchdowns with 1 fumble, portion becoming the archetypal subordinate successful NFL past with 3 seasons of 25 passing touchdowns and 5 rushing touchdowns.

The cardinal infinitesimal for the Bills' discourtesy and Allen successful attaining the team's archetypal AFC East triumph of the play was a 15-play, 94-yard thrust successful the 2nd fractional that took astir 9 minutes disconnected the clock. Buffalo proved successful a important infinitesimal that Allen & Co. could pb a thrust and enactment a squad away.

Promising trend: The Bills got the moving crippled going aboriginal with rookie James Cook starring the way. The crushed onslaught helped found 2 drives of seven-plus minutes -- including a 15-play thrust that was the longest of the play -- aft coming into the nighttime with 3 specified drives each season.

The discourtesy had 3 consecutive scoring drives to commencement the game, and that went a agelong mode erstwhile the discourtesy fell into a lull toward the extremity of the 2nd 4th and into the third. Cook besides showed however dynamic helium tin beryllium with important opportunities implicit an full crippled adjacent with the violative enactment not astatine its best.

Describe the crippled successful 2 words: Necessary win. The Bills are successful the midst of 1 of the team's biggest stretches of the play with 3 consecutive games against AFC East opponents, and starting with a convincing triumph connected the roadworthy versus the Patriots was important for the team's hopes for home-field advantage.

Under the radar stat that matters: Cornerback Tre'Davious White played much than 80% of the antiaircraft snaps. For White -- arsenic helium makes his mode backmost from a torn ACL sustained past Thanksgiving -- and this defense, it's a important measurement successful the close direction. White played 15 snaps past week against the Lions, and the Bills intelligibly felt comfy capable for him to play astir each series. After Von Miller was placed connected injured reserve earlier Thursday, that's important quality for this defence going forward.

Eye-popping NFL Next Gen Stats stat: Allen was 0.3 yards distant from the sideline connected his passing touchdown to wide receiver Gabe Davis successful the 2nd quarter. It was tied for the closest to the sideline connected immoderate completion since NFL Next Gen Stats began tracking players successful 2016. Philadelphia Eagles backmost Jalen Hurts besides had a touchdown thrown 0.3 yards from the sideline past play against the Dallas Cowboys.

Next game: vs. Jets (1 p.m. ET, Sunday)

New England Patriots

The New England Patriots' offense, already ranked successful the bottommost 3rd of the NFL successful respective cardinal categories, sunk adjacent little successful Thursday night's nonaccomplishment to the Buffalo Bills.

No juice. Not a accidental to win.

The Bills wholly controlled the game, with a time-of-possession borderline of 38:08 to 21:52.

There was specified committedness successful backmost Mac Jones' rookie play successful 2021, but present determination are much questions than answers.

Coach Bill Belichick has said repeatedly the subordinate stops with him erstwhile it comes to the offense. He made the unconventional determination to regenerate departed violative coordinator Josh McDaniels with Matt Patricia and Joe Judge, 2 coaches whose superior backgrounds person been connected defence and peculiar teams, respectively.

Belichick besides oversaw a streamlining of the offense, with players saying the extremity was to hopefully let them to play faster.

It hasn't worked.

Entering Thursday night, the Patriots were 31st successful the reddish zone, 30th successful interception percentage, 26th successful sacks taken per walk play, 27th successful archetypal downs and 25th successful third-down conversions.

It lone got worse Thursday night.

Describe the crippled successful 2 words: Offensively offensive. This was pugnacious to watch.

QB breakdown: Jones continues to struggle, arsenic the discourtesy doesn't look to person thing that defines itself. He finished 22-of-36 for 195 yards, with 1 touchdown and nary interceptions. When opponents person pressured Jones, the results person been peculiarly poor. He entered Thursday with nary touchdowns and 5 interceptions erstwhile pressured this season, with a 1.5 Total QBR. The Jets' Zach Wilson (1.3) was the lone qualified backmost with a little QBR successful those situations. On Thursday, Jones was 5-of-13 for 25 yards connected passes erstwhile pressured.

Troubling trend: Bills backmost Josh Allen deserves recognition for making a singular play connected an 8-yard touchdown walk to receiver Gabe Davis successful the 2nd quarter, but wherefore did Patriots antiaircraft backs look to halt playing arsenic Allen neared the sideline? That was 1 of respective costly mistakes that continued to amusement up for the Patriots, which besides included a delay-of-game punishment connected a punt and a botched handoff connected third-and-1 connected the team's archetypal violative drive.

Silver lining: Third-year antiaircraft extremity Josh Uche was 1 of the champion players connected the field. He had 2 first-half sacks, 1 of which forced a fumble. In the archetypal fractional alone, helium was credited with 5 backmost pressures, according to ESPN Stats & Information. That was a vocation high.

Eye-popping NFL Next Gen Stats stat: Rookie antiaircraft backmost Marcus Jones, playing wide receiver, reached a high velocity of 20.88 miles per hour connected his 48-yard catch-and-run touchdown successful the archetypal quarter.

Next game: astatine Cardinals (8:15 p.m. ET, Monday)