“Bills don’t play a good game, but avoid a bad loss…,” read a glaring headline by sports journalist Frank Schwab summing up the Buffalo Bills’ Week 16 clash against the New England Patriots. While the Bills triumphed 24-21, but the question to ask is: At what cost?

Things looked bleak when the visitors took the 14-0 lead in the 2nd quarter, as the defense kept giving up long drives—they faced similar issues in their clash against the Rams (a 42-44 loss) and the Lions (a 48-42 loss). The home team lowered the gap to 7-14 at halftime, and eventually made the game worth their while. However, the team’s head coach Sean McDormett is already on alarm.

During the post-game conference, the coach seemed concerned about their faults and revealed, “I think they had 5 penalties overall. We had 13 overall, 6 of which were pre-snap. So, we gotta come out with more discipline and can’t beat yourselves.” That’s his simple message to the locker room. They need to be careful.

“Those are the areas that drive you crazy, quite honestly, when you’re beating yourselves pre snap at home, in particular. So the crowd, the crowd noise is not a factor. Should not be a factor for us at home, and isn’t a factor. So to me, it’s just sloppy football, and we can’t have it,” he stated further.

It was evident from the first drive of the game. The Pats were at 48 yards but a pass interference penalty on LB Baylon Spector helped them gain 14 yards. Though Spector pushed RB Rhamondre Stevenson to the sidelines, he was not happy with the flag and waved his fist in anger. The Pats used this and scored a touchdown. Sean McDermott was right.

Overall, the Pats lost 34 yards in 5 penalties, but the Bills lost almost double, 78 yards in 13 penalties. That’s where the Pats focused. They stopped the passing game and targeted Josh Allen and other receivers. The Bills recorded only 152 passing yards while the visitors had 253 yards. It affected their 3rd down conversions.

The home team had 4 of 11 attempts in 3rd down conversions (36.4% third down efficiency), while the Patriots recorded 7 of 12 attempts (58.3% 3rd down efficiency). That’s something they would work on. But the locker room is still happy that they won.

Leading 24-21 with 1:11 remaining in the fourth quarter, the Bills had the ball at their opponents 48-yard line after recovering the onside kick. The Patriots had three timeouts, so McDermott’s team knew they needed at least one down. “When we go into a situation like that it’s ‘Hey, what would the clock read if we run the ball three times, and they use their timeouts?’. So you’re always trying to start there and then kind of work back from there,” the coach said.

“The first run Ty hit went for a first down, right there. So that then changes the script a little bit, and then we’re back into a new script. So things are moving fast… was really pleased with how the offense executed that situation,” McDermott concluded.

However, everyone wanted him to talk about the QB. Fans were curious about his elbow injury. But it’s not serious.

Sean McDermott reveals Josh Allen’s injury status

The head coach understands that they cannot risk any injury to Allen. Revealing their evaluation process, McDermott said, “I touched base with Josh back there, just put eyes on him, and they were going through the test. Nate was working with him in the docks to see what was going on exactly there. They cleared him to go back and play. Our medical staff does a great job with, if it’s not safe for a player, they’re not gonna put him back out there, so I trust them and they gave the green light to go back out there.” We could understand what Sean McDermott must be feeling there.

No one in the locker room and the fans would want their QB to not play in the postseason. But he is fine. Allen himself claimed that it was more like a funny bone nerve injury that healed within 5-10 minutes. However, they would like to have a few more checkups before the week 17 matchup against the Jets.

The Bills are in a dominant position ahead of the postseason. They would only want to win the remaining 2 games to keep the morale high. It wouldn’t be tough.