A split in the regular season meant that Saturday night’s game would determine the winner of the season series between the Bills and Patriots, but the Bills weren’t interested in keeping things interesting this time around.
The Bills scored touchdowns the first seven times they had the ball against a Patriots offense that had no clue how to stop a Bills attack led by quarterback Josh Allen. The result was a 47-17 Bills win that guarantees them at least one more playoff game.
Should the Chiefs win on Sunday night, Buffalo will be in Arrowhead Stadium. If the Steelers pull off an upset, the Bills will be back at home to face the Bengals.
The 47 points are the most that the Patriots have given up in any game since Bill Belichick became their head coach and the 30-point margin of victory is the second-biggest by any Patriots opponent during his time with the team. The Bills churned up 484 yards and got just about everybody involved in the fun, including backup offensive lineman Tommy Doyle.
Doyle caught Allen’s fifth touchdown pass of the night after reporting as eligible for a play on the one-yard-line. It came after tight end Dawson Knox went down just short of his third touchdown catch of the game and left Allen with 21 completions in 25 attempts for 308 yards on the night. Doyle was the ninth receiver to catch a pass from Allen.
Running back Devin Singletary added 16 carries for 81 yards and two touchdowns. Allen also ran for 66 yards as the Bills showed they could move the ball at will against the Patriots over the entire evening.
Patriots quarterback Mac Jones moved the team well on its opening drive, but he got picked off by Bills safety Micah Hyde in the end zone and the rest of the first half was tough sledding for the Patriots. The rookie wound up 24-of-38 for 232 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions in his playoff debut. It wasn’t a sparkling performance, but he would have had to have been nearly perfect in order to keep up with what Buffalo was doing to the Patriots defense.
Figuring out a way to stop that kind of onslaught figures to be a big part of the Patriots offseason plans because it is clear that the Bills are the top dogs in the AFC East at the moment. Next weekend will provide more of an idea about where they rank in the AFC, but Saturday’s offensive performance was one that will be tough for any team to stop.