The Patriots head into Week 4 with the same ugly backdrop that’s followed them all season: a 1-2 record, a shaky offense and a trip to Buffalo waiting on Sunday. For a team that still looks unfinished in too many spots, this first AFC East game of the year arrives as a real test of how far New England has to go.
Mike Vrabel didn’t dress it up on Wednesday. He put the focus on the basics.
"More points, less negative plays," Mike Vrabel said Wednesday. "Again, I've been in this a long time - this is about players and not plays.
That means that there's no magic formula, right? It's about execution, it's about playing with great speed, with great aggressiveness, being decisive."
That’s the assignment, because the Patriots offense has been a mess through three games. Drake Maye has already turned it over seven times.
The receivers and tight ends haven’t consistently separated. The run game hasn’t found much rhythm.
Injuries on the offensive line have only made everything harder to sort out.
This group is not going to look this bad for the next 14 games. That much is hard to believe.
But a turnaround has to start somewhere, and doing it against the undefeated Bills in their building feels like a steep ask. It may not qualify as a must-win, but it absolutely feels like a week where New England needs to show clear improvement.
One possible spark is TreVeyon Henderson, who missed the opener with an ankle injury and has only 25 touches since then - 24 carries and one catch. He did hit a 39-yard touchdown in Week 2’s win, but the second-year back still hasn’t been featured much. If the Patriots want any chance to juice this offense, getting Henderson the ball early and often has to be part of the plan.
The problem is that Buffalo has looked every bit like Buffalo. Josh Allen and the Bills offense have been rolling, and New England’s defense didn’t get a single stop in the red zone. That’s a rough combination for a Patriots team trying to climb back to .500.
The personnel picture only makes the task tougher. Christian Gonzalez and Christian Barmore are out, and A.J.
Brown and Mike Onwenu are on injured reserve. On top of that, Barmore’s shoulder injury removes a key piece from the defensive front, which puts even more pressure on players like Williams to affect the game.
He hasn’t logged his first sack yet this season, and New England badly needs that to change if it wants any shot at disrupting Allen and James Cook, the league’s rushing yards leader in 2025.
There’s also the Maye factor, and right now that’s where the Patriots’ ceiling seems to live or die. If he plays closer to the version of himself New England wants to see in 2025, the game can tilt.
But after another multi-turnover outing, it’s hard to trust the Patriots against a team this complete. As one of the beat writers put it, until Maye stops seeing ghosts, the struggles figure to continue.
That’s why the prediction leans heavily toward Buffalo. Against an undefeated Bills team, with too many injuries and too many errors still hanging around, New England has a lot to clean up before it can credibly be picked to win games like this. An AFC East blowout feels like the most likely outcome.
In Other News...
Bills Let Another AFC East Game Slip Away For One Reason
The Bills had enough offense to stay in the fight with New England, but it still came down to a familiar kind of AFC East frustration. James Cook and Josh Allen both helped Buffalo move the ball and put points on the board, yet the back-and-forth game never quite tilted the Bills way as the Patriots kept finding answers.
Drake Mayes night mixed big throws with turnovers, but New England still came up with the plays that mattered most, including touchdowns from Romeo Doubs and Efton Chism III. Chisms late scoring catch helped seal the Patriots 29-26 win, leaving Buffalo with another divisional loss and another reminder that close games in this rivalry keep slipping out of reach. [Read more 🡒]
Bills Loss To Patriots Turns On One Infuriating Sequence
A jarring sideline exchange helped flip the flow of a tight game in New England, and the Bills were the ones who benefited in the moment. Mike Vrabel was hit with a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty after using profanity toward an official, and the flag extended a Buffalo drive that ended with a game-tying touchdown before halftime.
From there, though, the Patriots regrouped and finished with a 29-26 win, powered by Drake Mayes three-touchdown afternoon and a game ball from Vrabel. The penalty became one of the afternoons most talked-about sequences, and both Vrabel and official Bill Vinovich addressed it after the game, leaving Buffalo with plenty to wonder about on a day when a small flashpoint carried outsized weight. [Read more 🡒]
Bills Secondary Concerns Just Got Harder To Ignore After Patriots Loss
The Bills secondary left little room for comfort in the loss to New England, and Maxwell Hairston had a difficult afternoon trying to keep pace with Romeo Doubs. Hairston was beaten for two touchdown catches, a reminder of how quickly coverage issues can swing a game when Buffalo is already dealing with injuries and a thin defensive backfield.
Josh Allens late interception only added to the frustration, even with Keon Coleman giving the offense a bright spot by finishing with 116 receiving yards and a touchdown. The bigger concern for Buffalo is that the defensive questions did not just linger after the defeat, they showed up in moments that mattered most, and now they sit there for everyone to see. [Read more 🡒]