In one of the most unexpected results of the weekend, the New England Patriots defeated the Buffalo Bills 29-25. No, that's not a typo and no, Tom Brady did not come out of retirement. Instead, the Bills extended their sluggish play for a third straight week as they've now dropped to 4-3.

After demolishing the Las Vegas Raiders, Washington Commanders and Miami Dolphins by a combined score of 123-33 in three straight weeks, Buffalo looked unstoppable. Yet right after, they sustained a slew of injuries on defense to linebacker Matt Milano, cornerback Tre'Davious White and defensive tackle DaQuan Jones. In the meantime, Josh Allen and the offense have started slow each game.

Still, playing the 1-5 Patriots should have been a rebound for the Bills after not performing well versus the Jacksonville Jaguars and New York Giants. Instead, the Bills lost and are now surrounded with more questions than ever. With a challenging schedule ahead including matchups versus the Cincinnati Bengals, New York Jets, Philadelphia Eagles, Kansas City Chiefs and Dallas Cowboys, the Bills cannot afford to allow this slump to continue.

So what caused this lost? While it would be easy to put some blame on kicker Tyler Bass for missing a kick or quarterback Josh Allen for throwing an interception and missing some throws, let's dive deeper into what led to this loss.

Bills Run Defense

A clear reason for the Patriots best offensive game of the season was the weakness of the Bills run defense. The Bills have the 10th worst run defense in the league, allowing 128.3 yards per game. Bill Belichick and Co. completely took advantage of this mismatch. Though Buffalo only allowed 96 yards on the ground, their weak run game especially showed itself in the screen game.

New England was able to seamlessly run screen plays for first downs or large gains to create second or third and short downs. The Bills allowed a whopping 170 yards after the catch due to their inability to make tackles on first try and get through blockers to the ball-carrier. This included giving up a 33-yard catch-and-run to Rhamondre Stevenson on the Patriots' game-winning touchdown drive. The Pats ability to use runs and screens allowed them to open up the offense to reverses and play-action passes, which allowed Mac Jones to have his best game of the season as a passer.

Bills Offensive Line

One reason the Bills lost was their offense could not get into rhythm. A huge reason for this was quarterback Josh Allen was under heavy pressure throughout much of the game. Even though Allen was only sacked once, the Patriots blitzed Allen on 43.2% of his drop-backs and got pressure on him 40.9% of the time, per Evan Lazar of the Patriots. This pressure forced Allen into getting the ball out quick or throwing an incompletion he wouldn't have normally made.

The Bills seemed to have no answers to handle the blitzes and pressures. Buffalo was lucky Allen survived and managed to throw the ball away enough so the Bills could play for another down and manage the comeback. Allen hung in long enough to take the lead back from the Patriots, but the defense couldn't stop New England on the final drive.

Offensive Coordinator Ken Dorsey

The difference in why the Patriots offense looked way more efficient than the Bills in large part comes down to the game plan. On one hand, Buffalo had to deal with tons of blitzing and pressure which caused many of their plays to fall apart. However, part of the reason Mac Jones had his best game was he had tons of easy throws and plays from the screens to play-action passes. This was crucial for Jones, and could certainly have helped Allen and the Bills get into rhythm as well.

The Bills offense has simply been inconsistent this season under Bills second-year offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey. Though they've done a better job running the ball more with James Cook, he still only got 13 carries in this game. Meanwhile, Josh Allen hasn't been nearly as involved in the run game for his safety, but it's definitely hurt the offense. If Buffalo wants to get away from these struggles, it'd be great to see a wider variety of runs and reverses since the Bills are still one of the most pass-heavy teams in the NFL.