The New England Patriots won their division for the 11th consecutive year by defeating the Buffalo Bills 24-17 in Week 16 of the 2019 NFL season.
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Final Score
New England Patriots 24, Buffalo Bills 17
New England Patriots
Tom Brady put together an efficient performance, completing nearly 80% of his passes. He stuck exclusively to the short and intermediate area and didn't attempt a single pass that traveled more than 20 yards in the air as the Patriots opted for a safe offensive gameplan that leaned heavily on Sony Michel and the ground game.
Sony Michel did much of the heavy lifting for a New England offense that ran the ball as much as it threw it in this game. Michel consistently made the most of his 21 carries, forcing a number a missed tackles and gaining a significant portion of his 96 yards after contact, as he rarely had clean holes to run through.
Buffalo wasn’t the only team that got lackluster performances from some of its defensive stars. Stephon Gilmore didn’t have many passes thrown his direction, but he was beaten badly for a 53-yard touchdown to John Brown and benefited from some off-target Josh Allen throws on his other targets.
Buffalo Bills
Josh Allen connected on a pair of nice deep passes and made several positive plays with his legs, helping to put the Bills in a position to tie the game late. However, as is often the case with him, there were simply too many misses to overcome, particularly in key situations. Allen was 0-for-6 and was sacked on seven dropbacks on third or fourth downs tonight.
John Brown and Dawson Knox produced the two big plays for the Bills, but Cole Beasley was the star of the show for this offense tonight. Beasley picked up over half of Buffalo’s passing yardage and converted five of his seven receptions into first downs.
Two of Buffalo’s biggest names on defense, Tre’Davious White and Tremaine Edmunds, struggled against their divisional foe, particularly while in coverage. Edmunds gave up several throws into his coverage, while White had less trouble allowing receptions and more with getting ballcarriers to the ground, as he missed several tackles during the game.
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