Bills keep AFC East, Josh Allen MVP hopes alive with win over Patriots

AI-assisted summary
• The Buffalo Bills defeated the New England Patriots 35-31, keeping their AFC East title hopes alive.
• Buffalo overcame a 24-7 halftime deficit by scoring five consecutive touchdowns in the second half.
• Quarterback Josh Allen threw for 193 yards and two touchdowns in the comeback victory.
• Running back James Cook contributed 107 rushing yards and two touchdowns for the Bills.

FOXBOROUGH, MA – The Buffalo Bills are a second-half team. 

Contextualize it through any filter, and the statement holds up. A game. A season. Watch out for those Bills in the second half – they’re comin’.

It’s when quarterback Josh Allen, the reigning NFL MVP, shows why he’s the best player in the world. Since 2020, the Bills are 23-4 in December and January to finish out the regular season.

If the AFC East power dynamics have truly shifted, it did not officially occur Sunday, when the Bills spoiled the New England Patriots’ chance to win the division for the first time in six seasons with a 35-31 victory to prolong their own chance of turning five straight AFC East titles into six.  

The Bills entered Week 15 with a plus-95 point-differential in the second half, which was highest in the NFL. Buffalo overcame a 21-0 deficit in the first half, a 24-7 hole at halftime. It was 24-21 by the end of the third quarter. What started as a performance with three straight punts turned into five straight touchdown drives. 

‘Obviously, we want to start faster and we don’t want to continue to put ourselves in the holes we’re finding ourselves in, but being able to dig ourselves out and be battle tested coming down the stretch here,’ Allen said. ‘But yeah, would love to find ways earlier on in the game to get things going so we don’t have to put ourselves in that situation.’

Since the Patriots remained in first place, Allen pushed back on the notion the Bills are the ‘standard-bearer’ of the division.

‘Obviously, the last five-ish years we’ve found sustained success, but never been able to punch our ticket to the Super Bowl,’ Allen said. ‘At the end of the goal, that’s every team’s dream. Our goal is not just to win AFC Easts. 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 weather was fitting for a potentially deciding game in the AFC East, with snow flurries falling around the greater Boston area for hours before kickoff and continuing throughout the game. Even more apropos was the back-and-forth game – the fourth quarter had three lead changes – that left the AFC playoff picture opaque.

It helps having No. 17 on your sideline.

“They have a good feel for when they are and when they’re not playing the way we need to play,’ head coach Sean McDermott said. ‘And I saw Josh as I was kind of bringing everybody up, and he looked at me. I just knew he was seeing it like I was. The entire team was on the same vibe.”

Winning close one-score games matters for teams that have designs on victories with more importance than a December contest on the road (if that’s what you want to boil this one down to), tight end Dawson Knox said. 

“No one in here blinked,” Knox said.

Coaches and players talk about riding the ups and downs of a game, a week, a season. The Bills don’t bother. No team can score 21 points in one drive. 

“It’s like such a chill vibe no matter what the score is,” wide receiver Khalil Shakir said.

The ‘vibe’ can be difficult to explain, Shakir said, but it is palpable on the sidelines.

“The fight in this team is unreal and unbelievable,” he said. “We play for one another. We play for our families.

“It’s a great feeling to know you’re not out of it.” 

Allen finished 19-for-28 for 193 yards and two passing touchdowns, both to Knox. 

‘I think it’s the love each man in that locker room has for each other, the willingness to put their body on the line in order to not let their teammates down. I think that’s the driving force,’ Allen said. ‘It’s the relationships in that room. And whether we are playing really good, whether we’re playing really bad, this team – we’re going to stick together, continue to fight and continue to try to find ways to win football games.’

He ran around like a madman. He limped. He puked. It was the quintessential ‘JA17’ experience. As Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel said, ‘that’s why they pay him $60 million.’

‘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.’

Allen showed his pinpoint accuracy as a thrower of the football by putting a pass into Khalil Shakir’s breadbasket for 37 yards. A holding call took back Allen’s third-down touchdown dash. No matter to No. 17, though. On third-and-goal from the 15-yard line, Allen stepped up and fired like a shortstop turning a double play to Knox in the back of the end zone for six points and the Bills’ first lead of the game. 

All Knox could do was chuckle in disbelief.

“That throw, man, it was on me in a second,” he explained. “It was like a 90-mile-an-hour fastball and he put it in the perfect place where the defender couldn’t get it. Just another thing that makes him the best player in the world.” 

Running back James Cook ran tough for 107 yards on 22 carries and a pair of touchdowns. No receiver had more than five catches for 65 yards (Shakir led Buffalo in both categories).

‘That is his superpower, that is who Josh Allen is,’ Patriots cornerback Christian Gonzalez said. ‘We talked about it all week. It is just props to them.’