The Buffalo Bills dropped their first loss of the 2025 NFL season on Sunday Night Football to the New England Patriots by a final score of 23-20.
The Bills had a messy first half on offense, turning the football over multiple times and giving the Patriots offensive possessions in the process.
QB Josh Allen understood the uphill battle that the lack of ball protection created for them, and spoke about it after the game.
‘We just played sloppy,” he said during his media availability. Not going to win a football game turning the ball over three times in our red zone. Gave them one in their red zone. That’s just bad football, and we just did not play good tonight.”
The Bills had a record 25 straight games with turnovers equal to or fewer than their opponents before the loss, which saw them lose the turnover battle in consecutive matchups.
“We shouldn’t even have been in the game with 3 turnovers,” Allen added.
Their head coach also remarked on losing the turnover battle and, ultimately, the game.
“You cannot turn the ball over three times and expect to win,” Sean McDermott said.
Allen threw his second interception of the season on a second-and-13 pick-off by New England cornerback Marcus Jones on a pass intended for Khalil Shakir, lost a fumble on a failed handoff to Dawson Knox, and receiver Keon Coleman fumbled the ball as well.
It gave the QB three turnovers in the past two contests after recording zero in the first several matchups of the season.
It also didn’t help that Buffalo received enough flags to knit a quilt.
Officiating chief Sean Hochuli whistled Bills players for 11 penalties on the day, costing them a total of 90 yards. Eight of those calls came in the first half alone.
Either way, Allen did not place any onus on the officiating for the loss, but instead recognized the difference in their and the Patriots’ play.
“They came in, they knew what they had to do, they took care of the football. We didn’t,” he noted. “If you look at it from the paper point of view, I mean, a pretty pivotal game in terms of what we could have done with this. and we didn’t take advantage of our opportunity.”
Buffalo will need to clean things up on both sides of the ball, as the defense also struggled to get meaningful stops against the Pats Drake Maye-led offense.
“We’ll watch the film and we’ll be better,” Allen stated confidently in his squad’s abilities.
The team will head into preparation for a chance to bounce back in Week 6 against the Atlanta Falcons.
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