Losing to the Bills helped launch the Patriots to Super Bowl 60

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Losing to the Bills helped launch the Patriots to Super Bowl 60

Matt Vautour · MassLive

Thu, Feb 5, 2026 ·

3 min read

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SANTA CLARA, Calif. — When it happened, it was popular to wonder if the Patriots were starting to show cracks in their armor.

The Patriots lost to the Bills , 35-31 in Week 15, ending a stretch of 10 consecutive victories. Winning streaks of that length are rare and New England was bound to lose at some point.

But they raced out to a 21-0 lead over Buffalo at Gillette Stadium and appeared to be en route to extending their streak to 11, a win that would have clinched the AFC East.

But then the Patriots collapsed. Buffalo scored touchdowns on their first four possessions and dominated the second half.

And the whispers started. The Patriots were a product of their easy schedule. They weren’t mature enough to beat a good team.

Buffalo was suddenly a trendy pick to win the AFC East again.

But the Patriots bounced back. Their offense improved. When their defense got healthy, it dominated. They beat Baltimore the following week and haven’t lost since.

Every team believes it can get better, no matter how it’s doing, but for a young team on a dominant winning streak, it can be hard to realize that they need to get better.

During the Patriots’ 10 straight wins leading up to the bye week, the players’ confidence grew dramatically.

And for a team that had been 4-13 a year ago, that growth was important. But when they took that big lead coming out of the bye week against Buffalo, they played overconfidently and got burned.

The loss to the Bills made the necessity of improvement obvious for the Patriots. And that improvement launched New England on another win streak. They’ve been victorious in six straight games, setting up Sunday’s matchup with Seattle in the Super Bowl.

“The Buffalo loss was a point where we were at a hot streak during the season,” Drake Maye said. “Our first half (of the game), we were like, man, this is who we are. Against these playoff teams, you gotta play four quarters. To play against a good team with a good defense, with a good quarterback. We have one of those again this week. So it’s got to be four quarters of football, and then we got to play at a high level.”

Rhamondre Stevenson said the loss was a tangible reminder of why they can’t let up.

“It was a great learning step for us,” he said. “You can learn from losses, and that was a good one to learn from. We have to play 60 full minutes.”

Christian Elliss thought the defeat likely came at an opportune time, as the Patriots were able to fix their flaws.

“That helped us and reminded us to focus,” he said. “When you’re on a win streak for so long, you get on a high horse. You start feeling yourself. It was humbling and that helped us.”

Maye hoped the applicable lessons would linger beyond this season.

“Responding from any loss is what life’s about. Responding from a game that didn’t go your way or plays you feel like you left out there is what this sport’s about,” he said. “Responding and bouncing back to plays or games or maybe even a season like last year, to bounce back and get back on track.”

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