Patriots quarterback Drake Maye threw for 273 yards as the Bills suffered their first loss of the season on 'Sunday Night Football'
Dearly beloved football fans, here lie the NFL’s last unbeaten teams.
Cause of death: Week 5.
After the Philadelphia Eagles saw their 4-0 start, and 12-game home winning streak, spoiled at home by the Denver Broncos to start Sunday, the only other unbeaten team, 4-0 Buffalo, saw its own hot start come to an end. The Bills’ 13-game home winning streak was snapped on “Sunday Night Football” after New England kicked a late field goal to win, 23-20, and officially usher the season into a state of parity.
Every NFL team now has at least one loss, while only one team, the New York Jets, remain winless.
Second-year Patriots quarterback Drake Maye didn’t blink in his matchup against reigning league MVP Josh Allen, completing 22 of his 30 passes for 273 yards. The Patriots (3-2) ran for two touchdowns, both by Rhamondre Stevenson. The two quarterbacks worked out together in the offseason.
Maye’s favorite target was Allen’s old one — Stefon Diggs, the record-setting former Bills receiver who caught 10 passes for 146 yards and was targeted 12 times. It was a record for the most yards receiving against the Bills (4-1) by a former teammate.
Allen threw for 253 yards with two touchdowns and an interception and also ran for a team-high 53 yards. Yet although Allen was able to find holes in the defense, the Patriots were able to shut down the rest of his playmaking teammates.
Bills running back James Cook had gained 100 or more yards from scrimmage in each of his four games this season, becoming only the seventh player in NFL history to do so — putting him in a club with names like Jim Brown, O.J. Simpson and Emmitt Smith. Yet on Sunday he was bottled up for 49 total yards, all on the ground, behind a Patriots defense that entered as one of the league’s better units in stopping the run.
Buffalo was stopped as much by its own mistakes as the Patriots, committing 11 penalties for 90 yards. The Patriots weren’t much cleaner, with eight penalties, but a combination of errors made a Bills offense that had scored 30-plus in every game — the only NFL team to do that this season — look mortal.
The Patriots forced three turnovers, the same number they had forced in the previous four weeks. It was uncharacteristic for Buffalo, too, because the Bills had committed just one turnover in the previous month. Only one of those turnovers was turned into points, however; in the fourth quarter, 11 plays after having intercepted Allen, the Patriots scored a touchdown to take a 20-10 lead and raise the first real possibility of the game that the Bills’ unblemished start might be in trouble.
Buffalo was trying to start 5-0 for the first time since 1991 and for only the fourth time in franchise history. It failed to match that history, however, despite possessing the ball for nine more minutes than New England and outgaining the Patriots, too.