The loss to the Buffalo Bills at Gillette Stadium was a rough wake-up call to the New England Patriots. If you play one half of great football, it means nothing unless you double it. In the first half, they used the run and deception, keeping the Bills on their heels. In the second, with the pressure on because their defense was imploding, they reverted to their vanilla offense and crashed.
Offensive Coordinator, Josh McDaniels, seemed to have finally "gotten it. He actually ran two designed running plays for Drake Maye that worked brilliantly. They were among the first all-season, a classic misuse of talent. While his quarterback, Drake Maye, has been individually brilliant as predicted, McDaniels has failed to run an offense that maximizes his players' potential.
One glaring example is keeping his electrifying rookie running back, TreVeyon Henderson, on the bench for much of the first nine games of the season, ostensibly because he had trouble blocking NFL linebackers. Solid locking by a back like Henderson is nice if you get it, and irrelevant if you don't. He's built for speed and explosiveness, yet McDaniels didn't have a clue how to use that talent earlier on.
The Patriots self-destructed, reverting to a vanilla offense
In a textbook display of poor coaching, McDaniels panicked and went away from using deception and trick plays of any kind. He reverted to his usual vanilla offense. Play-action was nowhere to be seen, reverses were tabled, and programmed runs by Maye were shelved.
All this made it look easy for the Bills' defense, and with their MVP quarterback Josh Allen leading the way, the Patriots' defense also folded.
Boston.com's Conor Ryan had some poignant takeaways from the disappointing Patriots loss.
"...Josh McDaniels and the Patriots offense put an emphasis on exploiting that porous Buffalo run defense — tying their full-game season high for rushing yards in a game (177) in the first half alone and finishing with 246 rushing yards...With Allen as advertised on the offensive side of the ball, New England desperately needed a retort from its own franchise QB.
The response? New England getting whistled for a pair of holding calls via Vederian Lowe and Mike Onwenu — and Maye getting knocked for an interception off a deep ball down the field that was snagged by Tre’Davious White."
A good chunk of the Patriots' rushing yardage came on two dynamic runs by Henderson for long touchdowns, setting a Patriots' record for most 50-plus-yard runs in a season. Meanwhile, Maye's still suspect offensive line committed drive-destroying penalties as part of the collapse.
The Patriots have three games left to right the ship
The Patriots can still win the AFC East if they win their final three games. They next face off against the always dangerous Ravens in Baltimore. To make matters worse, they face one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL in Lamar Jackson.
A very possible loss to the Ravens could topple the Patriots from the top of the AFC East.
Such a slide, if it continues, could rival that of the 2021 Patriots, who had both the AFC East title and the top seed in the AFC in the bag late in the season before surrendering both by the end. They were then systematically destroyed by Josh Allen and the Bills in an embarrassing playoff blowout.
Mike Vrabel began the 2025 season after a brilliant offseason by looking like a first-year NFL coach. By game four, however, he righted the ship, and his team went on a 10-game winning streak. It was what it was, though some questioned the run as the result of a soft schedule.
In Week 15, though, the walls came crashing down around Vrabel. His team played a half of football and then went to sleep, letting Allen and the Bills run roughshod over them. Neither Vrabel nor his offense nor defense had any answers to the Bills' resurgence. Sean McDermott totally outcoached him and his staff.
It's now up to Vrabel to pull his team up by their bootstraps before it's too late. If not, it could be more than the Coach of the Year award he'll be surrendering.