3 stats that prove Bills own Patriots after Wild Card beatdown

The New England Patriots had a golden opportunity to make a statement against the Buffalo Bills on Saturday night.

Little did fans know, though, that Buffalo would be the team that sent a message to the rest of the NFL. On top of proving that they’re in a different class than the Patriots, the Bills proved to the rest of the remaining playoff teams that, when at their best, there might not be a better team in the league.

On the Patriots’ best day? Well, they can compete with the NFL’s upper-echelon teams. At the end of the day, though, New England was a club marred by a lack of speed on defense, turnovers, and back-breaking penalties.

That’s not what you would expect from a Bill Belichick-coached side, but let’s remember this is essentially Year 2 of the rebuild.

With that said, there’s no excusing that performance. It was a drubbing on all three phases and the Patriots need to wear this. They need to know that, at this very moment, the Bills have their number. Here are three stats that show it.

3 stats that prove the Bills own the Patriots

3. 20 straight possessions without a punt

If you want to establish superiority over an opponent, keep their defense on the field for as long as possible. When the dust settled from Orchard Park, Buffalo won the time of possession battle handily, tallied nine more first downs than the Pats (29 to 20) and finished a sublime 6-of-7 on third downs.

Speaking of which, the fact the Bills only faced seven third down situations is a testament to how much they dominated this contest.

The real stat that shows Buffalo’s authority in this rivalry, though, is that they haven’t punted in 20 consecutive possessions vs New England.

For added context, the Bills only had nine drives in each of their last two matchups vs the Pats, so you have to go all the way back to Week 13 for the last time Belichick’s defense forced Brian Daboll’s offense to punt the ball away.

In fact, the last time the Patriots “stopped” the Bills came in the second quarter of Week 16 when Buffalo turned the ball over on downs after failing to convert a 4th and 1 from the goal line.

From that point on, Belichick and Co. have had zero answers.