FOXBOROUGH - Josh Allen is capable of winning games all by his lonesome, or something close to it. If you were parked in front of the television on Sunday, you witnessed the most recent example. The Bills QB threw for 251 yards and three scores while rushing for 78 more, including a 40-yard touchdown in a come-from-behind 39- 34 win over the Bengals.
“He can do everything,” Khyiris Tonga said. “Run the ball. Throw the ball. Throw 60 yards across his body. He can do it all. We know that. So, it's gonna be a fun challenge.
“When the game's on the line, he wants the ball in his hand,” Cory Durden wisely observed, “You’ve got to take account of that and just defend that. But he's a really good player. So I mean, watching the Bengals game, you saw that he took over the game himself at the end.”
But when the Bills have played their best offense this year, it’s because they’ve not forced Allen to put on the cape and be Superman. Instead, he can pick and choose because they’ve embraced a run-first identity.
Buffalo is 7th in total offensive DVOA and 3rd in rushing DVOA (for contrast, the Pats’ defense is 25th and 16th, respectively). Offensive coordinator Joe Brady implemented that approach when he got the job in-season just over two years ago, and that philosophy hasn’t changed. If anything, Brady has leaned into it even more, especially with a receiving group that has been largely underwhelming here in 2025. The rushing attack has produced, on average, the most yards per game of any team, averaging nearly 158 per week.
When these teams met back in week five, Buffalo was using 22 personnel (two tight ends, fullback, halfback) to the tune of 14%, the highest in the league. They had every intention of approaching New England the same way, but Mike Vrabel and interim DC Zak Kuhr threw Brady a curveball, deploying a heavier defensive set of their own, with Tonga sandwiched between Christian Barmore and Milton Williams. They also used a three-linebacker set, embracing Jahlani Tavai’s return from IR as an edge setter/regulator at the end of the line of scrimmage. The goal was to discourage the Bills from consistently attacking them in this manner. Both groupings were successful, and between that and the game script flipping - the Pats had a two-score lead heading into the final quarter - Buffalo never got James Cook going (15 carries for 49 yards).
“I feel like we did our job,” Cory Durden told me on Wednesday. “We stuck to the game plan, and everyone was in their gaps doing what they were supposed to do.”
That sounds boring, but it is so critical for the Patriots when Cook is on the field. He was a monster prior to facing the Pats back in October, eclipsing the 100-yard mark for three straight weeks, and has added four 100+-yard performances since, including a 216-yard effort at Carolina and 144 in Pittsburgh two weeks ago (the famous run, the same play, 29 times in a game). The play call may be dialed up to hit a certain gap, but with Cook, everyone needs to be ready.
“You gotta know - everybody who's at the point of attack with this back, he'll take it anywhere,’ Jack Gibbens told me. “He's dynamic, and he's going to find space. So it's everybody being disciplined, playing in their gap, and swarming to the football.”
Think that message was just to the linebackers? Oh no. Everybody on defense got the memo.
“Staying gap sound, for sure,” added K’Lavon Chaisson. “ That's gonna be most important as a defense, man. There’s going to be times where you're going to be eagerly wanting to get over, to cross over, and make the play. But as a ‘D’ line, we've been talking about that all day, staying gap sound and trusting guys behind you to play their gaps and fill that gap. That's what it's going to be about.”
The Pats have not been able to sustain their streak of multiple months holding a running back to under 50 yards. With Williams on IR (high-ankle) and Tonga out for the majority of the game in Cincinnati and then again versus the Giants, there have been some cracks at the point of attack. If Tonga is once again unavailable (we’ll have a better idea later this week), they’ll be a burden on guys like Durden, Barmore, Eric Gregory, Joshua Farmer, and Jeremiah Pharms to handle a Bills offensive line that appears to be headed back to full strength (RT Spencer Brown telling reporters on Wednesday he’s ready for Sunday).
“We'll need everybody up front,” Vrabel said on Wednesday. “(We know) how important the ability to stop the run is this week, and that's just a large part of what they do. They have a lot of confidence in it. Not the only thing that they do. They do a lot of things well. But you know, certainly they're going to run it until you stop them, and then they're going to have everything off of it.”
For as good as Allen is, making the Bills one-dimensional would be very helpful, especially knowing the Pats’ corners match up so well with Buffalo’s pass catchers. That’s a clear advantage in New England's favor.
There’s also this: Cook has suddenly developed a case of fumbilitis. He has put the ball on the turf four times in the last two weeks, including what could have easily been a back-breaking fumble at the goal line versus the Bengals. Before I could even ask Chaisson if that was a point of emphasis, he offered it up.
“Attacking the ball,” he said. “He’s (Cook) had some trouble with that last week, so continue to go after the ball and slow him down for sure.”