At this point last year, the Patriots were preparing to face the Bills in Buffalo in Week 5, hoping to keep the momentum going and have a better season than anyone predicted.
As we know, their win against their divisional foe helped start a 10-game win streak, and now that they did it again this past Sunday, the hope remains the same.
It was a big-time matchup the Patriots were counted out of because of their early-season struggles and the Bills' dominance. They were going into their second game in the new stadium on a three-game win streak, believing it would continue with an easy win over the team that dominated them for the last two decades, only to fall short and watch the Patriots steal another win on their home turf.
As if that wasn't bad enough, particularly the way in which they lost because of impressive performances by Efton Chism, Romeo Doubs, and a bounce-back game by Drake Maye, the new Highmark Stadium will forever be connected to the Patriots for one big reason:
The Bills first lost to the Patriots. That will always be a fact that they won't be able to let go of.
Maybe even worse is knowing who their final loss in primetime was in the old stadium last season.
Patriots fans will get a good laugh knowing they can hold this over the Bills forever
Because they're in the same division, the Bills and the Patriots have always had a rivalry, even if it subsided during the dynasty years, when Bill Belichick and Tom Brady beat them badly year after year.
But since the quarterback left the Patriots in 2020, Buffalo has led the AFC East, winning five of the last six division titles, with the Patriots snatching it back last year during their 14-3 Super Bowl run.
Given that most people chalked their success up to an easy schedule, which they feel was confirmed by how they started the 2026 season, they were completely counted out of this past week's game, particularly since it was in Buffalo, and Josh Allen has been an MVP frontrunner.
Unfortunately for them, it was the right day for Maye to have his breakthrough game and hand the Bills their first loss in their new stadium. This comes just one season after the Patriots gave them their last primetime loss in the old Highmark Stadium, something the Bills will always remember when they play their bitter rival.
That has to make the losses sting a little more, and it will surely be something Patriots fans won't let go of anytime soon.
It only took until their third home game to lose, which will be memorialized in the history books in a way that the Bills wish they could erase. Instead, the Patriots will always have this over their heads, which only adds to the fact that they won six Super Bowls to their zero.
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