ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. – Saturday night’s AFC wild card game at Highmark Stadium was never in doubt.
As soon as the Buffalo Bills touched the ball following the opening kickoff, you knew it. The Patriots never stood a chance.
Bills quarterback Josh Allen and his group embarrassed Bill Belichick’s defense on Saturday night in a 47-17 rout. Buffalo scored seven touchdowns on their first seven drives. Allen finished 21 of 25 for 308 yards with five touchdowns. He had more touchdowns than incomplete passes. He was never sacked.
This whooping served as another reminder that the Bills own the AFC East in these post-Tom Brady years. Buffalo has now won four of the last five games over the Patriots.
This one, however, marked the most lopsided playoff loss in the Belichick era, ahead of the team’s 33-14 wild card loss to the Baltimore Ravens during the 2009 season.
“They played well. We didn’t. They deserved to win,” Belichick of the Bills.
In the first half, the Bills scored touchdowns on all four drives of 70, 80, 81 and 89 yards. Buffalo traveled 300 total yards in the first two quarters and went into halftime up, 27-3.
“Every drive we couldn’t come up with a stop. It was frustrating,” said Matthew Judon. “It wasn’t one drive, one play or one single player. It was everything. It was the whole game. Everything was frustrating, honestly.”
Allen made the Patriots’ defense pay using both his arm and legs en route to an early Buffalo lead. The quarterback rushed two times for 41 yards picking up a 26-yard and then a 15-yard gain. Each attempt pushed the Bills downfield in the game’s opening drive. Allen capped the series off with an 8-yard touchdown to Dawson Knox at 9:45 of the first quarter.
