Mac Jones Rallies New England Patriots to Shocking Upset of Buffalo Bills
Halloween came early to Foxboro Sunday, with the New England Patriots and Buffalo Bills dressing up as ... each other.
Shockingly yanking their dismal season out of the ditch, the Patriots built a big lead, coughed up it in the fourth quarter, and then mounted a last-second, game-winning drive in a 29-25 upset over the Bills at Gillette Stadium. Trailing 25-22 with 1:58 remaining after losing a 12-point lead, quarterback Mac Jones drove his team 75 yards in the final two minutes. His 1-yard touchdown pass to tight end Mike Gesicki capped the furious comeback with 12 seconds remaining.
While the 2-5 Patriots made all the winning plays, the defending AFC East champion Bills - in a surprising role reversal - made most of the crucial mistakes.
Jones was brilliant in by far his best game of the season, completing 25 of 30 for 272 yards and two touchdowns. Most importantly, the Pats succeeded where they had failed several times. In one-possession losses to the the Eagles, Dolphins and Raiders, they failed to score on their final drive.
But this time, helped by more penalties by Buffalo, they got into the end zone and won for the first time since Week 3 against the Jets. Entering the game as 8.5-point underdogs, the Patriots beat the Bills for only the second time in eight meetings.
Before the game, news surfaced of a new contract extension for coach Bill Belichick. With the win, he joined Don Shula and George Halas as the only coaches in NFL history to reach 300 wins.
Mac Jones capped a 75-yard drive with the game-winning TD to upset the Bills.
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The Bills trailed 22-10 midway through the fourth quarter, but scored 15 points in 3:39 - thanks in part to a key fumble by Pats' receiver Kendrick Bourne. But instead of another heartbreaking loss, Jones this time authored a heart-stopping comeback.
He moved the Pats quickly behind a 34-yard completion to Rhamondre Stevenson, a 14-yarder to Hunter Henry and a pass interference on Buffalo that moved the ball to the 1. Jones missed an open Demario Douglas in the end zone on a slant route. But on the next play, he threw a dart to Gesicki on the same play for the winning score.
The Patriots pushed their surprising lead to 22-10 midway through the fourth quarter, thanks to timely defensive hitting and precision passing by Jones. Down only six, Buffalo went for 4th-and-2 at New England's 35. Dawson Knox appeared to catch a pass from quarterback Josh Allen for the first down, but the ball was jarred free on a sandwich hit by Kyle Dugger and Ja'Whaun Bentley.
A third-down Jones fumble seemingly took the Pats out of field-goal position on the ensuing drive, but the Bills were penalized for illegal use of hands. A couple plays later Jones fired a laser to Douglas inside Buffalo's 5. On the next play he hit Bourne in the left flat for a touchdown as New England's biggest lead of the season.
New England took a 16-10 lead into the fourth quarter after Buffalo finally scored a touchdown thanks to sloppy tackling. A flagrant flop by Allen drew a 15-yard penalty on Jack Jones to keep Buffalo's third-quarter drive alive. Allen then hit running back James Cook, who beat two Patriots to the pylon to slice the margin to 13-10.
The Patriots played what was for them a perfect first half in jumping to a surprising 13-3 lead. Seemingly everything went right, and Bills shockingly played right along with a bevy of mistakes.
With Cole Strange back in the lineup at left guard, the offensive line consistently moved Buffalo off the line of scrimmage in the running game. The Pats produced a field goal on their opening drive for their first lead in almost a month.
They made it 10-0 on a 2-yard scoring plunge by Ezekiel Elliott later in the first quarter. That touchdown was set up by an interception of Allen by safety Jabrill Peppers, who jumped into Buffalo's first pass of the day at the 45-yard line. Elliott dragged Pro Bowl safety Jordan Poyer into the end zone just eight minutes into the game.
It was New England's first points off a turnover this season, after it led the NFL last year.
This is what it was supposed to look like for the Pats. Rookie kicker Chad Ryland made both his field goals. Punter Bryce Baringer had a kick of 64 yards, and pinned Buffalo inside the 2-yard line on another. Christian Barmore and Deatrich Wise Jr. combined for a sack to push the Bills out of the Red Zone. And Mac Jones was calm and quick in the pocket, including an ad-libbed 33-yard completion to Kendrick Bourne.
Meanwhile, the Bills badly shanked a field goal, threw the interception and had a touchdown pass to Knox wiped out by a penalty for offensive interference.
