Fan notes from the Patriots’ loss to the Bills

On December 24, 2024By Littum

Happy holidays, everyone!

I’m sure there are more than a few of you out there who work for some real Scrooge and are currently reading this week’s fan notes from the office, where you’ll be until 15 on Christmas Eve before they finally give you the opportunity to get out of there to go be happy and bright. I’ve been there and it stinks.

On the plus side, I can’t imagine there are any New England Patriots fans too disheartened by last night’s loss. It was supposed to be a blowout, and instead it was a close game that the Pats could have won if they weren’t the same version of themselves week in and week out without a mistake. We’ve got ourselves a real Scorpio and the Frog scenario here, so we might as well embrace it.

If you’re not familiar with The Scorpion and the Frog, it’s an old fable where a scorpion has to cross a river, but it can’t swim. So it asks the frog to carry it across. The frog is worried that if he agrees, the scorpion will sting him, but the scorpion promises not to. After all, stabbing the frog means that it will also be killed when the frog dies in the middle of the river. So the frog agrees to carry the scorpion. Halfway across the river, the scorpion stings the frog, dooming them both. The dying frog asks the scorpion why it stung despite knowing the consequence, to which the scorpion replies, “I’m sorry, but that’s my nature.”
In the case of the 2024 Patriots, they are both scorpion and frog, perhaps some sort of Scorpifrog or Frorpian or Froggyscorp. They start crossing the river and for a while things go pretty okay. But then they stick themselves completely in the deepest part of the water and down they go. We can sit here and get mad and question it and wonder what the hell is going on, but when it comes to this team, that’s just their nature.
Be warned, today’s fan notes are going to be all over the place and even more nonsensical than usual. It’s officially Christmas Crunch Time at Casa de Shane, and I still have lots of shopping and wrapping and cleaning and all the other things I put off doing all season, so my mind is pretty discombobulated.
I also got into the egg a little early yesterday and may or may not have seen two Rhamondre Stevensons on screen all afternoon. Which means twice the fumble!!
In the end, a 24-21 loss to the Bills in Buffalo is a result you can be pretty happy with. Considering how they held their own early, scoring a beautiful opening-drive touchdown and holding the Bills under 30 points for the first time since October, you have to appreciate what we saw overall.
But what you can NEVER do, especially against the best team in the AFC, is start the second half with three possessions that end in a fumble, red zone interception and a horrible reverse-pass-lateral-fumble-thingy-drop for a touchdown . The fact that this game wasn’t 40-14 after the third quarter might be the best takeaway from this game.
That game was all wrong with the Patriots, all wrapped in pretty Christmas paper and lovingly placed under the ugly tree. Demontrey Jacobs completely misses his block and goes down. Maye doesn’t see Rousseau running towards Mondre and doesn’t adjust. Mondre sees the ball bounce right out of his hands. And then four Bills fall on the ball in the end zone before a single Patriot even knows what just happened.
I’ve kind of learned to take Patriots games this year as a series of individual moments as opposed to one big picture. The Patriots have, in my opinion, played three complete games all season and they have won them all. There have been a few contests where one unit played well but the others didn’t and they lost them. There have been a few games, like Jacksonville, where no one showed up at all. And then there have been games like this, with pockets of brilliance accompanied by levels of incompetence that I once thought were reserved only for burglars looting homes while rich guys take their whole family, including their deadbeat freeloader brother, to Paris in the holiday.
Because in this case, the Patriots were simultaneously as prepared as they’ve ever been for a game, and as undisciplined and in over their heads as it got. What is abundantly clear about this team is that they simply do not know how to win games. I don’t mean that in a “execute the game plan and we’ll be fine” kind of way, although that’s worth discussing as well. This team just doesn’t have what it takes to dig in, make the plays they need to make, come up with a score or a stop at a key moment and grab the win at the bells ringing. For every beautiful deep pass or perfectly executed run, there is a bad playcall, a mental error, a turnover or some other form of tomfoolery.
And that’s tough because as a whole I actually liked the offensive scheme we saw from AVP. Pre-snap movements. Rub routes. Power runs that set up game action. Letting Maye off the leash a bit. But they combined it with … well, all the other things.
And the defense held one of the NFL’s best offenses to 17 points. The tackle was effective and they forced a pick (which of course they tried to return to start at the 1 yard line instead of the 20). This loss is not on D, which is not something I thought I would say today.
I want to praise the coaching staff for the overall game…but I just can’t do it. They showed some grit by calling a fake punt at their own 22 yard line, but then punted on 4th and 1 from midfield. They punted on 4th and 5 from their own 46, down 10 with 8:46 left. I don’t know if New England’s final TD sequence was on the coaches or more on Maye still being a rookie, but it was first and goal from the Bills eight-yard line with 2:32 left and all three timeouts. New England needed nine plays and 1:19 to get it over the goal line. I didn’t even know that was possible.
In the first of what will hopefully be many showdowns between Josh Allen and Drake Maye, I’d say the kid more than held his own. His stats are better than Allen’s across the board, and overall Maye is having a better rookie season than Allen’s. In no version of Christmas Past, Christmas Present, or Christmas Future am I saying that Maye is the next Allen. But I’m not saying that either.
Where this game was ultimately lost was through the running backs. James Cook rushed for 100 and a score with a long 46-yarder to get the Bills back in it. Rhamondre Stevenson ran for 60 yards with two fumbles, one of which was returned for a TD. I know Drake Maye is officially credited for the disastrous play — which, to be fair, he never should have thrown with the defense like that — but it was a soft lob that Mondre should have caught. New England couldn’t consistently move the ball on the ground and the Bills could.
The biggest take away from this game was how Josh Allen, one of the smartest, toughest and most accurate quarterbacks in the league, decided that no matter where Christian Gonzalez was, he was going to focus on the other side of the field . Gonzo was targeted once all game and gave up zero catches.
Another great gift? New England jumped up in the draft this week and is now second.
Just be prepared for an inevitable two game streak to close out the season when they hit Chargers because they always beat the Chargers and then the Bills rest everyone for the playoffs in Week 18. Jerod Mayo’s job is safe next year regardless of how the season shakes out, but two wins to close out the year could cool his hot seat. few degrees.
And finally, whatever it is you’re celebrating this time of year, I hope it’s awesome. Enjoy good company, even if it’s only your own. Eat some good food. Laugh and relax and relax. Drink some Christmas cheer. Only two games left in the season and then no Patriots football until August 2025. Football is a lot like pizza – even when it’s bad, it’s still better than no pizza. So cherish the moment.