FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — The Buffalo Bills came out of halftime in weirdly familiar territory.
Down 24-7, little had gone right, especially on the defensive side of the ball, as the New England Patriots ran up and down the field, including a 52-yard rushing touchdown by TreVeyon Henderson.
But a rousing halftime speech wasn’t needed for the Bills to orchestrate a comeback, ultimately beating the Patriots 35-31 to improve to 10-4 and keep the race for the AFC East alive.
“Our guys, they understand. They have a good feel for when they are and when they’re not playing the way we need to play,” coach Sean McDermott said. “And I saw Josh [Allen] as I was kind of bringing everybody up [at halftime], and he looked at me. I just knew he was seeing it like I was. The entire team was on the same vibe.”
That was displayed on the very first play out of halftime when running back Ray Davis returned the opening kickoff 58 yards to the New England 44-yard line.
“[The return] giving us confidence of hey, like, let’s just go play football now,” Allen said. “We don’t have to worry about the score. We’re going to take it one play at a time. But [Davis] did a great job.”
Allen, whose MVP odds improved to third best per DraftKings, then led the Bills to a 28-7 second-half advantage, with five straight touchdown drives flipping the script after the Bills started the game with three straight punts.
The 21-point comeback is tied for third largest in franchise history, including playoffs, and was the biggest blown lead by the Patriots at Gillette Stadium and at home since Nov. 12, 1978, vs. the Oilers (23 points). It was the largest blown lead in NFL history by a team that entered the game at least nine games over .500; entering Sunday, those teams were 161-0 when leading by 20-plus points, per Elias Sports Bureau.
This Bills team has plenty of experience working back from deficits. Last week, Buffalo overcame a 10-point halftime deficit to beat the Cincinnati Bengals. The Bills also started the season with a 15-point comeback in the last four minutes to beat the Baltimore Ravens.
“I just think we got a lot of guys that’s battle-tested on this team,” cornerback Tre’Davious White said. “A lot of guys have played together for a long time, so, you look your brother in the eye, and you don’t blink. You just keep playing one play at a time, one series at a time.
“And before you know it, you look up, we got the lead. It’s just a message for us. We could pretty much go through anything and come out and win.”
Allen finished the game completing 19 of 29 passes for 193 yards and three touchdowns, two to tight end Dawson Knox — whose first daughter was born this week — and one to running back James Cook III. The reigning MVP also ran for 48 yards on 11 carries.
“I just don’t think there’s any quit in this team,” defensive end Joey Bosa said. “We’ve proved that a few games this year, that you just have to keep fighting. When we have a guy like Josh back there with the ball in his hands, anything is possible. So as a defense, we just needed to make a few stops, and we came out hungry in the second half to prove that we could do that.”
The Patriots (11-3) now cannot clinch the AFC East for a couple of weeks as two more divisional matchups await to end the season (at the New York Jets and vs. the Miami Dolphins). The Bills (10-4), who have won five straight AFC East titles, have a worse divisional record (3-2 compared with 3-1) and end the season hosting the Jets, making those final games critical. If the teams’ overall records and divisional records are tied, the tiebreaker will go to record in common games.
“Our goal is not just to win AFC East,” Allen said. “You’ve got to get into the playoffs to give yourself a chance to win a Super Bowl. So, that’s what we’re trying to do.”
The Bills’ defense kept that push alive after giving up 285 yards in the first half, including 177 rushing yards, by allowing just 100 yards in the second (69 on the ground), most of which came on a 65-yard touchdown run by Henderson. The Patriots rookie running back also had a 52-yard rushing touchdown in the first half.
The Bills held quarterback Drake Maye to under 200 passing yards for the first time this season. Maye scored two rushing touchdowns, bringing the Bills’ total allowed to 23, the most in a year under McDermott (since 2017).
“They were showing us new looks that last game, they did certain things out of, that this game, they were switching it up, so they did a good job mixing it up, and it kind of had us on our heels,” defensive end Greg Rousseau said. “But once they had to, I feel like, to keep calling plays, then they didn’t really have anything to trick us. I feel like they didn’t trick us anymore. We got to just put the ball down and play.”
A key for the Bills was ending a five-game streak with at least one turnover. They also recorded a takeaway when White had an interception in the second half on what was essentially an arm punt by Maye.
Buffalo will now hope that with three games remaining, an answer can be found to start games faster with a group that is well-versed in rallying from all kinds of deficits.
“We’re going to continue to fight one play at a time,” Allen said. “No matter what the score is, if it’s in the third quarter, in the fourth quarter, whatever it is, if we’ve got a chance and we’ve got the ball, we feel like we like our chances.”
