C.J. Gardner-Johnson left no doubt about how he saw the Bills’ 29-26 loss to the Patriots on Sunday: Buffalo did enough to lose, but not enough to get outplayed.
The Bills safety took aim at the final sequence, where Drake Maye connected with Efton Chism III for the game-winning touchdown. Gardner-Johnson called Chism “an elevated guy” after the game and then dismissed the idea that the receiver would be a recurring problem.
“An elevated guy made a hell of a catch,” Gardner-Johnson said after the Bills’ first loss of the season. “Probably won’t hear from him again, respectfully.
And I say that with a lot of confidence because it’s like, (Maye) didn’t put his confidence in his best player. If that was it, he would have thrown it to (Romeo) Doubs or somebody.”
Chism, who is on the Patriots’ 53-man roster, beat rookie cornerback Davison Igbinosun on the deciding play. Igbinosun was starting for injured cornerback Christian Benford and stayed tight in coverage, but Chism still came down with the catch.
Maye certainly leaned on Doubs, too. The free agent signing had six catches for 58 yards and two touchdowns as New England finished with 405 total yards and four scores after entering the day with just 36 points over its first three games.
Still, Gardner-Johnson wasn’t buying the idea that the Patriots suddenly solved anything.
“There wasn’t no issue. They didn’t do nothing crazy,” he said.
“They won the game. Whatever, they didn’t do s--- better than us.
We gotta play better, and they can mark that. We’ll be back and see them again at the end of the year.
So they better have that same energy. They only put up, what?
20-something points? They barely scored.
They struggled all game.”
Max Hairston drew attention after giving up both Patriots touchdowns to Doubs, but Gardner-Johnson pushed back on the idea of putting the loss on the cornerback.
“We’re not gonna point out Max,” he said. “Max played a hell of a game.
He is one of our great young players. I trusted him.
It’s just a get-better moment. He didn’t do nothing wrong.”
For Gardner-Johnson, the answer starts with how the Bills work between games.
“We just got to get better, take practice more serious as a group, as units,” he said. “So when those moments come, we make the play.
Not saying (Max is) not or we’re not. It’s just like I said, our best is required at all times, not just certain times.
And I feel like today they got the best of us.”
Bills coach Joe Brady said the loss should sting, but he was more focused on what comes next than on assigning blame.
“What are we going to do about it?” Brady said.
“I’ve always believed that great teams don’t have to lose to learn, but we lost the football game, and it’s now what are we putting out there. And are we going to sit there now that we lost and point some fingers?
“I think everybody in that locker room right now needs to sit there and say, hey, you know what, I’ve got to be better. If I’m better and I worry about making myself better right now, then we’ll continue to improve as a football team.”
Gardner-Johnson’s view was simpler.
“Everybody knows who’s the better team,” he said. “Everybody says, ‘Oh, you see the score,’ but the better team lost today.
But we’ll come back. We’ll be back.”
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