Buffalo Rumblings
Trailing 21-0 in the second quarter, the Buffalo Bills didn’t fold up shop and concede Sunday’s pivotal Week 15 AFC East clash on the road against the New England Patriots.
For the second straight week, the Bills (10-4) rallied from a double-digit deficit, storming back to beat the Patriots (11-3) 35-31 on a snowy afternoon, the largest deficit overcome by a visiting team to win at Gillette Stadium.
The victory snapped New England’s 10-game winning streak and kept the Patriots from snapping the Bills’ five-year stranglehold on the division, as Buffalo still has a shot at winning the AFC East and hosting a playoff game in the last season at Highmark Stadium.
Today’s edition of Buffalo Rumblinks leads off with observations and analysis from a terrific win over New England in a matchup that featured the reigning NFL MVP, Josh Allen, delivering more clutch plays than one of this year’s MVP frontrunners, New England quarterback Drake Maye.
After falling behind 21-0 and 24-7 heading into halftime, Josh Allen put on his white Superman cape and directed a Bills offense that looked unstoppable in the second half. With his team trailing 21-0 with less than six minutes remaining in the first half, unsung hero Ray Davis set the Bills up with good field position on a kickoff and Allen orchestrated a seven-play, 42-yard drive, capped by Allen’s five-yard touchdown toss to James Cook to get Buffalo on the scoreboard.
It was the first of five consecutive TD drives for Allen and the Bills, with Allen finding new father Dawson Knox on a pair of TD tosses—including a dart on 3rd and goal from the 14 to cap a 13-play 91-yard touchdown drive that gave Buffalo its first lead, 28-24. Cook added an acrobatic TD plunge from three yards out and found paydirt from 11 yards out as the Bills answered New England’s long rushing TD with a backbreaking score of their own to go up 35-31 with 6:48 remaining.
The much-maligned Bills defense then forced a punt after Matt Milano delivered his second sack of the game, and while Buffalo was forced to punt the ball back to New England with less than three minutes left in the game, Greg Rousseau sacked Maye and Joey Bosa pressured Maye on a 4th-and-5 pass that fell incomplete and the Bills’ thrilling comeback was complete.
Allen finished the day completing 19 of 28 passes for 193 yards with three TDs and zero interceptions, Cook rushed for 107 yards with two TDs on 22 carries, Khalil Shakir hauled in five passes for 65 yards, Tre’Davious White recorded his first interception of the year, and Matt Milano recorded a pair of sacks and finished with 10 tackles (nine solo) in the win.
Linked below: How Allen and an efficient second-half offense that outscored New England 28-3 was able to pull off something that hadn’t happened in Foxboro since 1978; how Allen proved he is more than deserving of winning...
