Bills gave Patriots a reality check—now comes the real test

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Bills gave Patriots a reality check—now comes the real test

Matt Vautour · MassLive

Mon, Dec 15, 2025 ·

4 min read

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FOXBOROUGH — When the forecast first called for it earlier this week, Patriots receivers Pop Douglas and Kyle Williams told MassLive’s Karen Guregian that they were hoping it would snow.

They wanted to incorporate snow angels into their touchdown celebrations in Sunday’s game against the Bills.

“That’ll be good for me to do a snow angel after I score a touchdown,” Douglas said. “I’d love to be able to do that.”

It did snow on Sunday, but the Patriots ’ receivers barely had any catches, let alone touchdowns. Douglas and Williams were both held to zero targets in Sunday’s loss to Buffalo . Zero catches. Zero snow angels.

The comments were innocent remarks by a couple of young guys who haven’t played in a lot of snow games at any level of their career. But they were also revealing.

If the Patriots were thinking and casually talking about celebrating ahead of the biggest game of the season, they’d gotten a little too used to success coming easy.

Ten straight wins will do that. And getting ahead of the Bills, 21-0 probably only added to that overconfidence.

The 35-31 loss and the blown lead that led to it should be a lesson: Beating good teams isn’t easy.

Sunday’s game wasn’t completely a playoff atmosphere, but it was close. Both New England and Buffalo are likely postseason bound and each had motivation and tangible rewards for winning.

The Bills played like a battle-tested team that’s been good for a while. When they fell behind 21-0, they adjusted. Buffalo didn’t come back by taking risks for big plays. They simply won individual battles again and again in the second half.

Drake Maye struggled too. For all of the MVP talk that he’d earned through the first 13 games, he had a chance to rise to a big moment in the fourth quarter and instead shrank a little.

Twice, the Patriots got the ball in the fourth quarter down by four. Maye had a chance to lead New England to a win and with it a division title and the playoffs. Instead, he completed 1 of 4 passes. He was sacked twice. The first drive ended on a punt and the second ended on downs. Neither produced a first down.

The loss dented his MVP candidacy, but should fuel his motivation.

“It’s about bouncing back and responding. And we have a lot of football ahead of us,” Maye said. “We’ve got to appreciate that and don’t take that for granted and learn from it.”

They got knocked down, not knocked out. Now, will the Patriots get up wobbly or mad? Will they fade or fight?

It’s character test time. The Patriots don’t have to win another game this year for the season to have been a huge step forward and a great jumping-off point for the future. But if they react right, there’s plenty to still chase right now.

In a season that’s been mostly devoid of adversity, the Patriots will be defined by how they handle this fresh batch.

New England was bound to hit a pothole sooner or later. If this had been an actual playoff game, they’d be done. Instead, they have a standard to chase.

“This definitely can be a kind of kick in the butt. We’ve had things go our way the last 10 weeks, so this is definitely a reality check,” Hunter Henry said. “That’s a good football team. We went toe to toe with them in every aspect, but we have to give them credit. We’ve got to get a lot better from this fast.”

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