Ugly Patriots loss just gave the Josh McDaniels critics all they wanted

The national media ran with the Drake Maye vs. Josh Allen storylines last week, and in a way, that played right into the New England Patriots’ game plan for the Buffalo Bills in Week 15.

For as brilliant as Maye had been over the Patriots’ 10-game winning streak, offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels planned to pound Buffalo’s biggest weakness on Sunday — its run defense.

The Patriots went with a run-heavy script in Sunday’s showdown with the Bills, and it helped the team jump out to an early 21-0 lead. Running back TreVeyon Henderson got rolling, Maye scored twice with his legs, and New England piled up 177 rushing yards in the first half alone.

It set up a dream situation for the Patriots’ offense entering the second half. Leading 24-7, the stage was set for McDaniels to start mixing in some play action, and late Maye hunt for a few big plays in the passing game to keep Allen and company at bay.

But, continuing an alarming trend, the Patriots struggled to find a rhythm on offense after halftime, and their lack of play-action specifically against Buffalo’s soft and leaky defense miffed fans and beat writers alike.

The Patriots’ biggest second guess from the Bills game is painfully obvious 

Per Andrew Callahan of the Boston Herald, the Patriots utilized play action on just 14.3 percent of Maye’s drop-backs against the Bills on Sunday. That’s a major departure from Week 5, when New England shredded Buffalo’s overpursuing defense with a 41.8 percent play action rate.

“Where in the world was the run game and play-action passing?” Callahan wrote for the Herald. “McDaniels called three runs after halftime — two of which were successful — and posted his second-lowest play-action rate of the year. Back in October, the Patriots used play-action on more than 40% of their dropbacks against Buffalo and to great success. What changed?”

The Patriots definitely got away from their dominant run game during that second half, as McDaniels called only three designed runs out of the team's 18 total plays from the third quarter on. That probably had more to do with Allen than anything, as Buffalo opened the half with two quick scoring drives to get right back into the game.

New England just didn’t have the ball enough to execute any type of game plan coming out of halftime. Buffalo dominated the time of possession battle as it scored touchdowns on four straight drives to start the half. The Patriots’ lone scoring drive over that span lasted one play: Henderson’s 65-yard sprint to the house (with Maye leading the way).

The Patriots ended up with five second-half possessions, and three of them didn’t net a first down. The other, outside of Henderson’s home run, was stymied by back-to-back penalties on third down, and ended with a glorified punt on Maye’s heave down the right sideline that was intercepted by Tre'Davious White.

New England’s game-to-game shift from play action was definitely staggering, and stands as a fair second guess; the Patriots had the Bills right where they wanted them entering the third quarter.

McDaniels’ critics shouldn’t go overboard here, though, as you need to actually possess the ball and first establish a rhythm, and the Patriots were too poor on gotta-have-it-downs in the second half: On third and fourth downs, they closed the game 1-for-5 with a sack, interception, drop, and batted pass; that's just brutal execution.

The Patriots’ offense was ugly over those final two quarters, but so was the defense (and special teams). Throw quarterback play and coaching on the list, too. Mike Vrabel has preached “no naps” all season, and he’ll need to figure out why his red-hot team fell asleep when it mattered most on Sunday.