Key Bills Defenders Saw Patriots Take Advantage Of Chunk Plays

FOXBORO, Mass. — The New England Patriots had easily their best offensive game of the season, scoring 29 points and leading a go-ahead drive to earn a 29-25 victory over the Buffalo Bills.

Mac Jones had the second-highest passer rating in his career, trailing only a 50-10 thrashing of the Jacksonville Jaguars his rookie year. New England ran the ball well by controlling the line of scrimmage in a resurgent game from the offensive line. As a result, Bill O’Brien got to open up the playbook as the offense tallied multiple chunk plays throughout the day.

After allowing 364 yards to New England, Buffalo’s pair of quality safeties addressed how the Patriots took control.

“Felt like we gave up too much on the first two drives,” Micah Hyde told reporters in Foxboro.

“When you have that success on the ground, it opens up the pass game,” Jordan Poyer told reporters after the game. “Whether it’s play-action or the boot game. You start getting guys playing downhill and they’re able to throw some routes behind the underneath defenders.”

Teams consistently find new ways to produce in divisional matchups, needing that ability against teams that know each other as these two rivals do.

“We know the Patriots pretty well. They know us really well,” Hyde added. “We knew that they were going to try to run the ball and keep our offense off the field. We just weren’t able to get off.”

Particularly on the final drive, Poyer and Hyde recognized a “failure” from the defense to make the stop to win the game for the Bills.

“Big plays,” Hyde explained. “That first-and-10 play, we’ve got to rally and get him down. A couple other dink-and-dunk plays that they got to get into field goal range. They worked their way down the field. They worked the clock. Poor execution by us as a defense.”

“We came after him,” Poyer said. “He just made a good throw and catch.”

The Patriots scored their highest point total against Buffalo since Jones took over as the starting quarterback in 2021.

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The Patriots move to 2-5 on the season with another key matchup in the AFC East in Miami against the Dolphins next Sunday.