The officiating in Sunday’s loss to the Bills was a topic of conversation for Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel on Monday morning.
Vrabel’s team was penalized seven times in the 35-31 loss, including a pass interference call on cornerback Carlton Davis on Buffalo’s go-ahead touchdown drive in the fourth quarter. The Bills had two penalties assessed against them, which was something Vrabel took issue with during an appearance on WEEI.
“It is a difficult job, they do have a difficult job,” Vrabel said. “The consistency — sometimes I struggle with it. I’ll say this, the Bills lead the NFL in offensive holds, and I’ll leave it at that. And that would be hard for me to understand how the team that is coming into the game leading, and that’s how they play, didn’t have one yesterday. That’s hard for me to understand.”
The Bills were actually penalized for holding once in the game, but Vrabel made it clear in the appearance that he thought there were other calls that should have gone against Buffalo over the course of the game. It’s not the first time that Vrabel has made an issue of officiating in Patriots games this season and he’ll have to hope that things start to break his team’s way in the coming weeks.
Bills Clips
The Bills needed a win on Sunday to keep hope of winning the AFC East alive, but it didn’t look like they’d get it when halftime came at Gillette Stadium.
New England scored on four of their five possessions in the first half and carried a 24-7 lead into halftime. Any thoughts of a prolonged celebration in the final 30 minutes ended with four straight touchdown drives that lifted the visiting team to a 35-31 win.
Quarterback Josh Allen threw two of those touchdowns and said after the game that the collective belief in themselves was the reason why the Bills were able to end the day on the right side of the final score.
“I think it’s the love each man in that locker room has for each other,” Allen said, via a transcript from the Patriots. “The willingness to put their body on the line in order to not let their teammates down. That driving force. It’s the relationships in that room. And whether we are playing really good, whether we’re playing really bad, this team is going to stick together and continue to fight and continue to find ways to win football games. I think we saw that tonight.”
The Bills also needed to come back from being down 10 points at halftime in Week 14 and Allen said in his press conference that the Bills “want to start faster” in order to avoid the need for such heroics. He noted that it has made the team “battle tested” as they head toward the postseason and that could prove to be a vital factor as the Bills try to make it to the Super Bowl for the first time in Allen’s career.
The Patriots entered Sunday 11-2 with a chance to clinch the AFC East with a win.
They started the game against the Bills looking like they’d have a great chance to do just that, going up 21-0 and taking a 24-7 lead into halftime.
But then things fell apart in the second half, with Buffalo going on to win 35-31.
What happened?
“I mean, we weren’t able to get any stops,” head coach Mike Vrabel said postgame, via transcript from the team. “When we had an opportunity to make a play, we weren’t able to make it. Penalties. And that’s how this game goes. A few small plays make the difference. We were very prepared for this team to — we were going to need 60 minutes to beat this team.
“This is a good football team. We had a lot of good football in there. And we had a lot of plays that, a few plays we’d like to have back that we’ll have to learn from.”
Quarterback Josh Allen specifically made plenty of second-half plays — which was no surprise from the reigning MVP. He finished the contest 19-of-28 passing for 193 yards with three touchdowns and no picks. He added 48 yards on the ground via 11 carries.
“He’s 6’5″, 250 pounds, runs fast, hard to tackle, hard to get down on the ground. He has an accurate, strong arm. I’m giving you a dissertation on a league MVP,” Vrabel said. “Just watch all the games and know that it’s the same as it was last week. Had a guy free. Weren’t able to make the play. Last week’s team had a guy free, we weren’t able to make a play. That’s why they drafted him and that’s why they pay him 60 million dollars.
“I don’t know what to tell you. Just exactly what we knew what it was going to be, that we were going to need to get a stop or be able to tackle and if we pressured and we came free — so hopefully we get another opportunity to do that. But that won’t be for, I don’t know, but whenever we do… We’ll have to be ready for the quarterback that we have this week.”
The Patriots will be on the road to face quarterback Lamar Jackson and the Ravens before facing the Jets on the road and the Dolphins at home to cap the 2025 regular season.
Bills quarterback Josh Allen said that all is well with him physically after Sunday’s 35-31 comeback win over the Patriots.
Allen was asked about CBS cameras catching him vomiting while on the sideline in the fourth quarter of the game. Allen said that there was nothing unusual about the moment except that it doesn’t usually make it to the screen.
“That’s, I mean, if they don’t catch it every game, I don’t know,” Allen said, via a transcript from the Patriots. “Basically happens every game. If I don’t get enough out pregame, usually happens at halftime. If I don’t get enough at halftime, it usually happens in the third or fourth quarter. I don’t know why I do it. It just happens. It’s due to nothing else other than just like a weird feeling. Just got to get it out.”
Allen threw three touchdowns to help spur his team’s jump from 17 points down to winning the game and that result makes it easier to stomach any of the hiccups that went on during the journey.
Josh Allen and the Bills’ offense mounted an incredible comeback in New England today, shaking off an ugly start to score touchdowns on five consecutive possessions and win 35-31.
The Patriots needed only to win today to clinch the AFC East, and when they took a 21-0 lead in the second quarter it appeared that they would do so. But Allen wasn’t going down without a fight.
Over a stretch of five drives, Allen threw three touchdown passes and James Cook ran for two more touchdowns, and the Bills came back to win a game that had looked like it would be a blowout loss.
The win improves the Bills’ record to 10-4, while the Patriots fall to 11-3. The Patriots still own the tiebreaker because they have a better AFC East record, so they’re a clear favorite to win the division. But the Bills showed their mettle by staying in contention with today’s comeback.
If the Patriots do win the AFC East, that means the Bills will have to win on the road, in hostile environments in January, to get to the Super Bowl. Their performance today suggests that the Bills are capable of doing just that.
The Patriots marched down the field and scored a touchdown on the first possession of today’s game against the Bills, with some help from the officials.
The biggest play of the opening drive was a 30-yard pass from Drake Maye to Kayshon Boutte that replays appeared to show should have been ruled an incompletion, as Boutte did not maintain control when the ball touched the ground. But the replay assistant didn’t change it, and the Bills didn’t see a replay in time to challenge.
It won’t make the Bills feel any better that on their own opening drive, a 35-yard pass from Josh Allen to Brandin Cooks was ruled a catch on the field but overturned to an incompletion by the replay assistant.
It’s a must-win game for the Bills if they want to have any hope of winning the AFC East, and it’s off to a rough start for Buffalo.
The Bills will be missing a key defensive piece as they try to keep the Patriots from clinching the AFC East in New England on Sunday.
Cornerback Christian Benford is inactive for the game. Benford was added to the injury report on Thursday with a toe issue and he missed practice on Friday before being listed as questionable.
Benford had a big hand in each of the Bills’ last two wins. He returned a fumble for a touchdown and had an interception to help them beat the Steelers in Week 13 and he returned an interception for the go-ahead score against the Bengals in the fourth quarter last Sunday.
Bills at Patriots
Bills: CB Christian Benford, LB Terrel Bernard, WR Gabe Davis, S Darnell Savage, OL Tylan Grable, DT Phidarian Mathis, OL Chase Lundt
Patriots: LB Bradyn Swinson, OL Marcus Bryant, DT Eric Gregory, TE C.J. Dippre, WR Efton Chism, QB Tommy DeVito
Ravens at Bengals
Ravens: WR Rashod Bateman, CB Keyon Martin, OL Joseph Noteboom, DT Aeneas Peebles, QB Cooper Rush
Bengals: WR Tee Higgins, QB Jake Browning, S PJ Jules, DT Jordan Jefferson
Jets at Jaguars
Jets: QB Tyrod Taylor, QB Justin Fields, WR Tyler Johnson, EDGE Braiden McGregor, DL Mazi Smith, TE Mason Taylor, LB Kiki Mauigoa
Jaguars: LB Yasir Abdullah, OL Walker Little, TE Hunter Long, DL Emmanuel Ogbah, DL Austin Johnson
Chargers at Chiefs
Chargers: WR Quentin Johnston, S Elijah Molden, WR Derius Davis, CB Nikko Reed, LB Kyle Kennard, OL Trey Pipkins, WR Dalevon Campbell
Chiefs: CB Trent McDuffie, WR Hollywood Brown, OT Jawaan Taylor, TE Jared Wiley, G Trey Smith, RB Elijah Mitchell, DT Zacch Pickens
Cardinals at Texans
Cardinals: CB Max Melton, WR Marvin Harrison Jr., S Jalen Thompson, S Dadrion Taylor-Demerson, OL Evan Brown, OT Paris Johnson, WR Xavier Weaver
Texans: OL Jarrett Kingston, WR Braxton Berrios, RB Nick Chubb, QB Graham Mertz, CB Ameer Speed, LB E.J. Speed, DE Solomon Byrd
Browns at Bears
Browns: CB Denzel Ward, RB Dylan Sampson, G Zak Zinter, G Wyatt Teller, T Jack Conklin, TE David Njoku, DT Adin Huntington
Bears: QB Tyson Bagent, RB Travis Homer, WR Jahdae Walker, LB Ruben Hyppolite, DE Dominique Robinson, DT Jonathan Ford
Commanders at Giants
Commanders: QB Jayden Daniels, DE Drake Jackson, OL George Fant, CB Jonathan Jones, OL Trenton Scott, RB Chris Rodriguez
Giants: EDGE Kayvon Thibodeaux, WR Ryan Miller, P Jamie Gillan, OL James Hudson, WR Gunner Olszewski, DL Rakeem Nunez-Roches, QB Russell Wilson
Raiders at Eagles
Raiders: QB Geno Smith, CB Greedy Vance, RB Zamir White, OL Jordan Meredith, TE Ian Thomas, WR Alex Bachman, DL Leki Fotu
Eagles: LB Josh Uche, QB Sam Howell, CB Mac McWilliams, RB A.J. Dillon, OT Lane Johnson, DT Jalen Carter
Bills quarterback has played 124 career regular-season games. And he’s on the brink of accounting for 300 total touchdowns.
Via NBC Sports research, Allen is closing in on Aaron Rodgers’s record for the fewest games needed to get to 300 total touchdowns. Rodgers did it in 134 games.
For his regular-season career, Allen has 217 passing touchdowns, 77 rushing touchdowns, and two receiving touchdowns.
He’s also chasing his third career season of 25 or more touchdown passes and 10 or more rushing touchdowns. All other players in NFL history have combined for two. (Cam Newton and Kyler Murray each did it once.)
With 34 total touchdowns in 2025, Allen is six touchdowns away from his sixth straight season of 40 or more total touchdowns. Aaron Rodgers also has six seasons of 40 or more total touchdowns.
Time will tell which of the six quartebacks taken in the first 12 selections of the 2024 draft will be regarded as the best of the bunch. For now, however, Patriots quarterback Drake Maye is the one who is on the brink of doing something historic.
He has won 10 straight games while throwing for 200 or more passing yards in each one. If Maye does it again on Sunday against the Bills, he’ll be only the fifth player to ever do it in 11 straight games, per NBC Sports research.
Peyton Manning did it twice, in 2009 (14 games) and 2012 (11 games). Tom Brady did it in 2007 (13 games). Aaron Rodgers did it in 2011 (13 games). Dan Marino did it in 1984 (11 games).
Maye would join Marino as the only players to accomplish that feat before the age of 25.
The names are impressive. This isn’t something that happens for flashes in the pan but for bona fide franchise quarterbacks.
Maye is proving, one game at a time, that he belongs in this category. In only his second NFL season, things are looking up for the Patriots. Which is a lot better than it was looking in 2023 and 2024.
The Patriots announced a few roster moves ahead of Sunday’s game against the Bills.
Running back D’Ernest Johnson has been signed to the active roster from the practice squad. Johnson has appeared in three games for New England this season and has four carries for seven yards.
Johnson will be the No. 3 back behind Rhamondre Stevenson and TreVeyon Henderson because Terrell Jennings has been placed on injured reserve. Jennings was ruled out on Friday due to a concussion and he will now miss the rest of the regular season.
The Patriots also elevated defensive lineman Leonard Taylor from the practice squad for Sunday’s game.
