The Buffalo Bills walked out of Foxborough with a massive 35-31 win over the New England Patriots, but it came with a stain on the defensive resume. Buffalo was already shorthanded in the secondary, with breakout corner Christian Benford ruled out pregame due to a foot injury, forcing Sean McDermott to lean harder on Cole Bishop and the rest of the defensive backfield.
On offense, Josh Palmer’s return helped Josh Allen keep pace in a wild AFC East shootout that could loom large in the playoff seeding race.
As the game unfolded, the run defense kept springing leaks. Alaina Getzenberg noted on X that TreVeyon Henderson’s 52-yard rushing touchdown gave the Bills a league-high 22 rushing scores allowed this season, matching the most ground TDs Buffalo had surrendered in any year since McDermott took over in 2017, per ESPN Research. By the end of the afternoon, that mark was officially broken, setting a new, brutal franchise low for a McDermott-era defense.
The early stages were an outright nightmare up front. New England stormed to a 21-0 lead, piling up more than 150 rushing yards in the first half alone while Buffalo’s offense barely cracked 100 total yards.
Even as Allen and the Bills clawed all the way back to steal a 35-31 win, the Patriots’ success on the ground kept the door open and turned what should have been a statement victory into more of a red-flag film session for the defensive staff.
Injuries only sharpened the concern. Defensive tackle Jordan Phillips left with an ankle issue and was deemed questionable to return, removing one of Buffalo’s key interior anchors just as the Patriots were gashing them between the tackles.
The comeback and the win matter in the standings, but the story underneath is clear: if the Bills want to seriously chase a deep January run, their suddenly record-setting generosity against the run has to be fixed in a hurry.
