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One-Stat Recap: Buffalo Bills fall to the New England Patriots

The Patriots’ game plan shouldn’t have worked, but it did.

New England Patriots v Buffalo Bills Photo by Timothy T Ludwig/Getty Images

The Buffalo Bills fell to the New England Patriots on Monday Night Football and are still looking up at them in the AFC East standings. Some have called the Patriots’ game plan a masterpiece. While it worked for them, it was highly improbable.

Rookie quarterback Mac Jones only threw the ball three times against the Bills, two of which were completed. Those completed passes went for 19 total yards. The rushing game and some poor red zone performances from the Bills won the game for New England and masked their lack of a passing attack. The last time an NFL team won a game with three or less pass attempts and under 20 passing yards was 1974. Head coach Sean McDermott was just six months old then.

Ironically, it was the 1974 Bills that won the last game with this much passing futility. Joe Ferguson led the Bills in a 16-12 win over the New York Jets at Rich Stadium, which was just in its second season of operation.