This wasn't supposed to go down like this.
What happened to the Bills? Why Buffalo's shock loss to Patriots matters, and why it doesn't originally appeared on The Sporting News
For a long, long time, the Buffalo Bills couldn't beat the New England Patriots.
Sure, it was Tom Brady and Bill Belichick on the other side. But the one-sidedness of the "rivalry" made it not much of a rivalry at all.
In recent years, though, the Bills flipped the script. Josh Allen joined the show, and Buffalo became the dominator. It was the Pats who couldn't find a win in this matchup on hardly any occasion.
Really, it's never felt like much of a rivalry. It's always been lopsided, one way or the other.
Until now?
The Patriots and second-year quarterback Drake Maye fired a salvo Sunday night with a 23-20 win in Buffalo.
The Bills had been the league's last unbeaten team for a few hours, after the Philadelphia Eagles lost to the Denver Broncos earlier Sunday. But no more. The Bills have a loss.
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Why the Bills' loss matters
Buffalo's loss matters because of how it happened.
The offense was brutal in the first half, hamstrung by a ton of penalties. The Bills had seven accepted penalties against them before the Patriots had one, and they weren't fluky. Buffalo kept messing up, again and again.
That can't happen against good teams, or even against on-the-rise teams with some spunk.
Buffalo also couldn't get its offense going for a really long time. Teams are going to watch the Patriots' defensive film to see how they slowed down Josh Allen and his receivers.
For the Bills to get where they're going, they'll need to limit mistakes and they'll need to get WRs open down the field. If this game teaches them that, it's a good thing.
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Why the Bills' loss doesn't matter
At the end of the day, the Bills want to win the last game of the season.
Sure, they have to win enough games to get in the playoffs, and potentially enough to top the division.
But as long as they're in the dance that is the postseason, they can achieve their ultimate goal.
At this point, it's their only goal. Week 5 against the Patriots is a chance to improve chances of winning that final game, but it doesn't mean much in the grand scheme of things.
The Bills will have to clean up their mistakes, but they probably will. They're a veteran team with loads of talent and experience.
Coaches are fond of saying that all a team's goals are still in front of it.
For the Bills, that's true. They've only got one goal: Super Bowl.
Buffalo has never celebrated an NFL championship before. And nothing about the ultimate goal was taken off the table for the Bills on Sunday.
There's work to be done, yes. There's a long season ahead, for sure.
But at the end of the day, the Bills want to win the game their franchise has never won. And they're still very capable of that, no matter what happened against the Patriots on the first Sunday in October.
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