The Patriots' Week 16 matchup with the Bills was projected to be a show of absolute domination by the Super Bowl-contending divisional winners, with most predictions having Buffalo hitting upward of 50 points by the end of the day. Nearly every analyst had the home team blowing out the once kings of the AFC, living up to the MVP-caliber season by quarterback Josh Allen.
So when the 3-11 team came out looking like they would be competitive in a hostile environment, it was beyond shocking to everyone watching. It was even more so when the Patriots got ahead of the Bills early on, leading their opponent 14-0 into the second quarter.
But there was a noticeable shift once the Bills scored their first touchdown. Everything that looked to be clicking, like Alex Van Pelt's play-calling and the offensive line doing their jobs, faded away almost as quickly as it arrived.
The collapse of everything that looked too good to be true followed suit, with the play-calling being the most notable.
Alex Van Pelt did everything but secure his job with the Patriots beyond this season
Along with Jerod Mayo, Van Pelt has been under fire for most of the season, and he continues to add more reason for fans to doubt him every week. But it's not just fans, as we saw last week with the Krafts reaction to a brutal game against the Cardinals, and Van Pelt didn't take the heat off him much in his effort against the Bills.
The worst and most impactful bad calls began after Marte Mapu's mishap after making an interception. He chose to try and run the football out of the end zone rather than take a knee, allowing the Bills to tackle him at the one-yard line.
Van Pelt then decided to call a run play on first down, which makes no sense. Later, he called for a backward pass right outside the end zone, resulting in a fumbled catch by Rhamondre Stevenson and a touchdown recovery by Buffalo.
Patriots RB Rhamondre Stevenson drops Drake Maye's backward pass. The Bills recover it for a touchdown.
— Doug Kyed (@DougKyed) December 22, 2024
Stevenson should have caught it, but there is zero upside in throwing the ball backward on those plays.
After completing a successful first half against a team on a hot streak, it's disappointing to see the Patriots unable to match that in the final 30 minutes of the game.
It's a story as old as time and something that they have consistently done in recent years. You'd think that a coaching staff under the intense pressure that they are would do everything they could to avoid this result.