By Nick Wojton / Billswire.usatoday.com
The Buffalo Bills hung tough with the New England Patriots for three quarters on Monday Night Football.
But in the end, the Patriots (6-2), in their trademark way, got just enough from quarterback Tom Brady to sink the Bills’ (2-6) sinking ship this season.
With that, here are five takeaways from the Bills’ 25-6 loss to the Patriots:
Bills get creative
The Buffalo offense has been woeful and timid so far in 2018. One simply can’t say that about the Bills and their effort on offense against the Patriots on Monday. Early in the game, the Bills’ game plan just looked different. On the team’s first offensive drive of the game, Buffalo showed several wildcat formation looks, which included direct snaps to both LeSean McCoy and Chris Ivory in the backfield. Buffalo even pulled out the old flea-flicker.
The creativity appeared to pay dividends at first, but the Bills went back to into a shell during the middle of the game, banking on the running attack which didn’t work out. The Bills left themselves in third-and-long situations far too often. Unfortunately by the time Buffalo unleashed passes through the air, the game was essentially over and a late Derek Anderson pick-six interception to Devin McCourty iced the game. The Bills could consider pulling out the extra stops earlier.
Defense holds again
The scenario is becoming all-too-familiar this season for the Bills. For nearly three quarters, Buffalo’s defense had a fantastic effort against Brady and the Patriots. The future Hall of Fame quarterback only put up 12 points on the Bills’ defense through three quarters. Despite Brady throwing for 324 yards on the Bill’s defense, he looked uncomfortable in the pocket for most of the night and only mustered one scoring drive. In total, Brady was sacked twice, hit four times and was pressured plenty of times.
This Bills defense is certainly a serious contender for one of the best in the NFL, even with the occasional hiccup they’ve had this season. But every defense has those games, even the Baltimore Ravens did this past weekend.. But it’s unfortunate that the efforts of Buffalo’s defense are often being wasted by such a poor effort on offense. The only thing the Bills defense didn’t do was cause turnovers, but that doesn’t take away from their performance.
Some life of passing
In the end, the Bills couldn’t put together enough in the air, but they did put together something. Which is better than nothing. Which is what the Bills usually do in the passing game.
Anderson surpassed the 200-yard passing plateau for the first time since Buffalo’s Week 2 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers when rookie quarterback Josh Allen tossed for 245 yards. Anderson’s 290 were a season-high in a league that does anything it can to benefit the offense.
On the flip side, despite their creative efforts, Buffalo’s ground game never got going in the game. The Bills averaged 2.4 yards per carry as a team. McCoy, in total, had 13 yards on 12 carries, including a long rush of 12 yards. McCoy was a factor in the passing game, at least. Chris Ivory led the Bills on the ground with 34 yards on six carries.
Gronk, Gordon shutdown
Of the Bills’ successes on defense, none were more impressive than the work Tre’Davious White did on wide receiver Josh Gordon and the efforts of Micah Hyde and Matt Milano did against tight end Rob Gronkowski. In the contest, Gordon was held for four catches and 42 yards. He reportedly was going to sit out some early time, but never did.
Gronkowski, the Buffalo native who typically tears up his favorite team growing up, was kept at bay. On eight targets, Gronkowski had three grabs for 43 yards. He did have one key catch of 22 yards which put the Pats in scoring position, but it was an incredible effort with Phillip Gaines all over him in coverage. Gronk usually does much, much more damage than that.
Zay Jones’ breakout
When the Bills’ offense did briefly show some life through the air, there was one player who benefited the most: wide receiver Zay Jones. With six catches and 55 yards, it was Jones’ best game as a Bill. Of his eight targets, Jones hauled in his first six in a row. His final two were prayer attempts by Anderson to Jones in the end zone, one of which included a pass that could have been a penalty for pass interference on the Patriots.
Jones has slowly but surely had a much better second season, which is completely buried by the team’s inability to do much of anything on offense.