Patriots vs. Bills: 4 Reasons New England Lost

How could a powerhouse like the New England Patriots blow a 21-0 lead and lose to the (formerly) lowly Buffalo Bills?

The short answer is that there is no short answer. There were plenty of things that the Bills did right and plenty of things that the Patriots did wrong. On the surface, it would seem uncharacteristic on both sides, but this game served to illuminate the truth about both of these teams.

It turns out that the Patriots aren't as good as we thought, and the Bills are a lot better than we thought.

So how did this happen? What details can we find to explain this counter-intuitive result?

Lack of Offensive Balance

The New England Patriots jumped out to an early lead against the Buffalo Bills, but weren't able to hold it because of a lack of balance on offense.

All four of Tom Brady's interceptions came on first down, and three of the four came when the Pats had the lead. When a team is in the lead on the road, first down is typically a running situation, but New England chose to go to the air. It's tough to criticize the strategy because the Patriots have historically had success with an unbalanced offense, but in this game, it came back to bite them.

Without a consistent threat at tailback (no New England runner had more than nine carries), the Patriots struggled to put the game away.

The Bills deserve a ton of credit for converting each of Brady's interceptions into points, but had the Patriots gone with a more conservative game plan, Buffalo may never have had the opportunity to climb back into the game.

Injuries

Especially on defense, the New England Patriots sorely missed some key players today.

Though he's still adjusting to the Patriots defensive scheme, Albert Haynesworth was quickly becoming a pass-rushing weapon for New England. In his absence, the Patriots struggled to pressure Ryan Fitzpatrick, failing to record a sack on any of the Buffalo Bills' 40 pass attempts.

When the ball was in the air, the Patriots felt the absence of safety Patrick Chung.Though the New England defense has struggled to stop the pass even when it's been at full strength, having Chung on the field certainly would have helped to cut down Buffalo's gaudy passing numbers. Ryan Fitzpatrick was able to push the ball downfield all day, throwing for 369 yards and averaging a gaudy 9.2 yards per attempt.

The Patriots are typically one of the best teams in football at adjusting schemes to fill in for injured players, but against the Bills, New England couldn't fill the holes left by Albert Haynesworth and Patrick Chung.

Penalties

The New England Patriots have traditionally been built on discipline and precision. Neither was present in Buffalo today.

The Patriots took eight penalties, resulting in 93 yards for the Bills. However, the yardage alone doesn't fully capture in the impact of the Pats' penalties.

New England's offensive line took two penalties that singlehandedly stalled drives.

The defense took three straight pentalties that combined, moved Buffalo from its own five yard line to the New England 32 yard line, negating a Patriots interception in the process.

Yet another penalty on the Patriots defense turned turned a first and 20 for Buffalo into a first down. That drive eventually led to the Bills' first touchdown.

Vince Wilfork was flagged for an unnecessary roughness penalty that set Buffalo up with first and goal from the Patriots' one yard line after New England had already stopped the Bills twice inside the five.

That last infraction set up the game-winning field goal; a fitting end to a frustratingly self-inflicted loss.

Quarterback Play

Ever since Tom Brady started winning Super Bowls, the New England Patriots have been able to take comfort in the fact that they'll have the advantage at quarterback in most every game they play. Today, that was not the case.

Brady was outplayed by his counterpart, Ryan Fitzpatrick.

Brady got off to a fast start, leading New England to touchdowns on three of its first five drives and staking the Patriots to a 21-0 lead. From there, Fitzpatrick took over.

He led his team to 10 points in the final two minutes of the first half, closing the gap in what was shaping up to be a blowout win for New England. By the early part of the fourth quarter, Fitzpatrick had drawn the Bills even.

After Brady threw a back-breaking interception that gave the Bills the lead, he heroically bounced back to lead New England to a tying touchdown. Yet, once again, Fitzpatrick was better.

He marched his troops into field goal rang in the last 3:25 of the game, setting up Rian Lindell for the winner.

In total, both Brady and Fitzpatrick threw an equal number of touchdowns and picks (four each for Brady, two each for Fitzpatrick), but when the game was on the line, Fitzpatrick was simply the better man.