FOXBOROUGH — The two times the Patriots didn't win the AFC East title since the Patriots asserted their dominance in 2001, they had legitimate excuses.
In 2008, it was The Injury — Tom Brady's knee injury (they still finished tied, by record, for the title).
Last season, it was The Rebuild. Brady was gone, the Patriots tried to get by with Cam Newton at quarterback and, with Covid opt-outs, they were left shorthanded in finishing 7-9.
To real football fans, the '08 Dolphins and '20 Bills "won" the AFC East with asterisks. They weren't real titles because the kings of the mountain in New England were not close to their best.
There will be no asterisk for the 2021 Buffalo Bills should they win their final layups against the Falcons and the Jets at home.
The Patriots are out of excuses. They have none.
By virtue of their dominating 33-21 victory over the Patriots in front of 65,878 at Gillette Stadium on Sunday, Josh Allen, Sean McDermott and the Buffalo Bills are the rightful and the legitimate rulers of the AFC East.
They earned it.
The Patriots? They looked more like pretenders than contenders. Again.
They knew what was on the line in facing the Colts and Bills coming off a bye week. Post two victories and they were probably the No. 1 seed in the AFC with a playoff bye. Split and you win the division, which means at least one home date and a chance at more if a mortal Chiefs team falters.
With so much on the line, the Patriots have imploded. For the second straight week, the Patriots were beaten soundly in all three phases by their opponent, fell way behind early and could not climb out of their hole as they fell from the No. 1 seed in the AFC to the 6th.
Sunday was even worse because the defense, with so much experience and so much money invested in it (almost $20 million more than the offense even with all the free-agent additions on offense in the offseason), had an epic fail. The Patriots could not stop Allen and the Bills as they gained 428 total yards, scored points or drove to the New England 1-yard line on every meaningful possession, and became the first team to never punt against a Belichick defense.
Let me say that again. In a huge game for both teams, the Bills became the first team with zero punts in a game against a Belichick-coached team (474 games, including playoffs).
"Well, kind of a little bit like last week. Not a lot to say here," Belichick said after the game. "Obviously Buffalo made more plays than we did today, played better than we did, coached better than we did. We just didn't perform well enough to really have a good chance to win the game."
Belichick conceding that his team, which was riding a seven-game winning streak just two weeks ago that had everyone dreaming big, really didn't have a good chance to win this game.
I never thought I would see the day, even after Tommy left town and after the 2-4 start to this season.
All those feelings about another magical run like 2001, and Mac Jones morphing into Brady, just evaporated.
This is starting to feel more like 2019, when an 8-0 start and historically great defense were exposed as frauds in a 2-3 finish that included a home loss to Miami, and a first-round playoff exit that sent Brady looking for a life raft.
The Dolphins are the final game on the schedule this season ...
As for Jones looking like Brady, only if you squint real hard, he has a lead, the defense gets him short fields and the weather's good.
For the second-straight week, Jones looked like the rookie he is in a big spot by completing 14 of 32 passes (43.8 percent) for 145 yards, two interceptions and a career-low 31.4 rating. NFL's NextGenStats had Jones for an expected completion rate of 63.3. His -19.5 was by far the worst of his career (Chargers was -11.8) and was the second-lowest in the league to the Giants' Jake Fromm. His performance in a 34-10 loss to the Eagles elicited this headline from the NY Post:
That's the territory Jones was in on Sunday.
"I didn't play great," Jones said. "I can play better and I can lead a lot better. It starts with me, so we'll just have to look in the mirror and address what we can and just keep working to get better every day."
Jones will have better days, but this is what rookies look like when the rest of a veteran and well-paid team is not doing their jobs either.
If you think this had to do with the playcalling or the gameplan ... we're in Week 16. If you haven't learned by now that the coaches — who see him every day in practice in every weather condition — do not implicitly trust Jones and his physical skills, especially in less-than-ideal weather conditions, then I don't know what to tell you. Sunday, just like in Indy, told you that they do not trust him enough to put the game on his shoulders. That's where he is right now, and that's fine. We all knew it was going to take a great team effort from the Patriots to go anywhere this year. But wishing for it to happen right now is just a fool's errand. It ain't happening.
If you want to get after a gameplan, look to the braintrust on defense. They obviously thought the Bills, without WRs Gabriel Davis and Cole Beasley, were not going to be a problem.
Whoops.
Yes, Isaiah McKenzie (11-125-1) had a career day that will likely never be duplicated, but this is the risk you run when you trade Stephon Gilmore — leaving you one injury (Jonathan Jones) away from mediocrity in the secondary — and then decide to let Allen have all day to throw.
The Patriots deserved to be picked part, and some of us saw this coming if the first Bills matchup wasn't playing in a windstorm:
With especially this version of the Patriots and how they have become more zone coverage reliant, the Bills have everything to just spread the Patriots out, and then either hit them with the run or the pass (or both with Allen option plays). The emergence of Matt Breida at RB almost gives the Bills a K-Gun ability to go spread, no-huddle and gun-runs sprinkled in. Get the Patriots spread out with WRs Stefon Diggs, Cole Beasley, Emmanuel Sanders and TE Dawson Knox, then use Breida to keep the defense honest — that's exactly how I would combat the Patriots' beef up front. If the Patriots are stretched out from sideline to sideline, they look very slow. And Allen has all the controls at the line of scrimmage. If the Patriots go with a light box, Allen can change to a run or keep it himself. That would be the nightmare scenario for the Patriots' defense, in my opinion.
After shutout over the Falcons, we had some questions about the Patriots heading into their four-game, prove-it stretch:
Can Mac Jones keep this up after his 14th game this season, against teams that now have plenty of tape of him doing more than handing off and throwing short passes?
How does he operate if he's trailing in the second half against a team he has to keep pace with? Can he pass the Patriots out of a hole? If the AFC East is on the line, can he outplay Allen and make plays against that Bills defense? Has he ever seen snow before? How does he play in cold weather?
Is this defense really this good, or are we headed for another reprise of 2019, when they were the best in the league entering December and then wilted at the worst time? Can they play zone defense against Ryan Tannehill, Allen and Wentz or will they get exposed? If Matthew Judon is taken out of the game, do the Patriots have enough pass rush or will they get passed on?
Can first-time Patriots in this position like Jones, Damien Harris, Rhamondre Stevenson, Hunter Henry, Jonnu Smith, Kendrick Bourne and Nelson Agholor make the big play in the biggest spots — which is required to become true Patriots worthy of being spoken about with players and teams of the past? What about Judon, Christian Barmore, Kyle Dugger, Adrian Phillips and Jalen Mills? How many 53-yarders is Nick Folk going to be able to make late in the season?
The Titans (injuries) and at Bills (weather) games didn't provide many answers. But the last two games have. And they have not been good for the prospects of this team going forward this season.
The good news is not many teams in the AFC can do what the Colts and Bills just did to the Patriots. And New England largely played terrible in the first halves of both teams (fell behind a collective 44-7), and were one big stop away in each game from having a chance to take the lead.
That's sort of been the theme all season in their losses — one stop away.
"It's too late in the season to not play your best football," said Devin McCourty. "We've got to play better. We need to make a play. We are not making those plays. It hasn't been good. It's up to us as a team."
The Patriots have to find a way to start making those plays, or we're headed for another repeat of 2019.