Josh Allen passed for three touchdowns, James Cook accounted for three scores and the Buffalo Bills recovered from a 21-point deficit to post a 35-31 victory over the New England Patriots on a snowy Sunday afternoon in Foxborough, Mass.
Dawson Knox caught two touchdown passes as the Bills (10-4) snapped New England’s 10-game winning streak and prevented the Patriots from clinching the AFC East.
TreVeyon Henderson rushed for 148 yards on 14 carries and scored on runs of 52 and 65 yards for the Patriots (11-3). Drake Maye completed 14 of 23 passes for 155 yards and one interception and also rushed for two touchdowns.
Allen completed 19 of 28 passes for 193 yards and rushed for 48 yards while Cook ran for 107 yards for the Bills. Matt Milano had 10 tackles, two sacks and a forced fumble for Buffalo, which remained alive for its sixth straight AFC East crown.
The Bills scored the first 21 points of the second half to turn a 17-point halftime deficit into a 28-24 lead.
Allen tossed a 4-yard touchdown pass to Knox on the first possession of the third quarter and Cook later scored from the 3 as the Bills moved within three with 3:49 left in the quarter.
Allen connected with Knox on a 14-yard touchdown pass to put Buffalo into the lead with 10:03 left in the game.
The advantage lasted just 14 seconds. Henderson was bottled up on a run to the right before reversing direction and finding open field. The rookie turned it into a 65-yard scoring run to give New England a 31-28 lead with 9:49 left in the contest.
Buffalo quickly responded and moved back ahead on Cook’s 11-yard scoring run with 6:48 remaining.
With 1:54 left, New England faced fourth-and-5 from its own 22 and decided to go for it. But Maye’s pass was deflected by Joey Bosa and the Bills took over with 1:47 to play.
Three plays later, Ty Johnson gained 2 yards on third-and-2 and Buffalo closed it out with three Allen kneel-downs to win for the sixth time in the past eight games.
New England dominated the first 24-plus minutes while opening up a 21-0 lead.
Maye scored twice in the first quarter on runs of 8 and 7 yards. Henderson then broke loose on a 52-yard touchdown run with 5:53 left in the half.
Buffalo got on the board on Allen’s 5-yard pass to Cook with 1:56 left before Andy Borregales kicked a 36-yard field goal as time expired to give the Patriots a 24-7 halftime lead.
–Field Level Media
