The cold hard truth as the Patriots lose to the Bills in Foxborough

Well folks, as the season progresses and winter is upon us now that December has begun, it would seem that the winds of change have not made their way over to Foxborough and this Patriots team. 

The question going into this specific game was, are the Patriots strong enough right now to be serious contenders and successful against a dynamic team. Unfortunately, we now have the answer with this 24 – 10 home loss, and the answer be, nope. 

Maybe it says a lot when your leading receiver is the one strong piece of the offence who, is in fact the running back Rhamondre Stevenson, and the third leading receiver behind Jakobi Meyers?… A defense guy. Major credit to Andy Hart of WEEI for his comments during the bye week on A Clare Perspective podcast advising to put Marcus Jones on offense, and they did, with him scoring the Patriots only touchdown of the game. 

As good as this Patriots defense is they did have issues, Jon Jones whilst he has been a strong player this season in general, did not factor well in his match up against Stefon Diggs. But Josh Uche had himself a game! Matt Judon’s Mr Red Sleeves may be the thing of many quarterback nightmares, but it was Uche’s breath that the Mighty Josh Allen will have felt on the back of his neck over and over again in this game. 

Big kick Nick actually missed a field goal, which was so surprising that I missed it the first time as I was updating my notes because it looked like it had gone over! 

Whilst the offense has a patchwork line, a quarterback surprisingly struggling in his second season, it would appear that the coaching just can’t string it together. The Patriots seem to be having egregious disjointedness when it comes to the offense, and I don’t believe, personally, that you can blame a lack of weapons. Whilst it’s a big debate that the Patriots don’t have a WR1, at this point it really doesn’t matter. With the offensive line unable to give Mac time to breathe and air the ball out to the speedy receivers they did pick up, it would appear that the experiment being made with the offensive coaching is just not working. 

However! I shall attempt to give you a bit of a positive recap to the best of my abilities!

Within the first minute of the first quarter, Patriots number 49 took the Bills punt returner DOWN! The best thing is, I had to double check the number because that folks, is Joe Cardona the long snapper! A long snapper take down is actually a rather beautiful thing.

As aforementioned, Matthew Judon and Joshua Uche combined some great pressures, and although they didn’t push Allen into too much impatience, they did out sack the Bills defence with Uche notching up 2 sacks, verses the Bills AJ Epenesa with only 1. 

Rhamondre Stevenson continued to be utilised as much as possible, but a few cracks became visible with some ball security issues from catches. However, a running Stevenson is a darn machine, wrecking tackles for the first down, and mid third quarter with some great YAC, and in this case the C stands for carry!

I have to have a quick shout out to the veteran with extra, Devin McCourty who took some Josh Allen groin to the face to end the first quarter. That really gives new meaning to that festive “if’s and buts, candy and nuts…” Oof.

The two tight ends were out there, but it was unfortunate that they were having to be used for blocking again. They did have seven targets combined, but again with the unfortunately, Mac didn’t get the ball out great and they had a combined of 4 receptions for 19 yards. Not the production we are hoping for. On the flip side as a tight end enthusiast, Hunter Henry got a catch (yay!) AND how hot did these guys look in those red throw back unis?!?

We pretty much knew going into this game it was going to be difficult. The Bills are presently a better team than the Patriots, but coming off that Vikings loss it looked like the Patriots MAY have something they could draw on to pull out a win, at worst a close loss. Right now, perhaps not. 

Well that is it for another week you lovely lot. Week 13 is in the bag and the Patriots sit at 6 – 6. The good news is Tom Shaw-Mellors will return to bring you his Pats Prop Preview for the Arizona Cardinals game!