Pats Show How Far Bills Have To Go

All things considered, the Bills had a reasonable enough effort against the New England Patriots in Week 13. Buffalo held Tom Brady in check for much of the game, not allowing a passing touchdown and even recording an interception. LeSean McCoy had one of his better games of the season. New England was held to just nine points at the half. Throughout New England’s two decades of dominance over the Bills, we’ve seen games much, much worse than this one.

- Mark Ludwiczak

Yet Buffalo fell, 23-3, and never really had a chance of pulling off the upset. If the last month was a reminder of just how far the Bills are from competing with the very best, this was the icing on the cake. The Patriots — the standard for excellence in the NFL — remain on an entirely different level than the Bills. And it’s going to take a lot more time and a lot of additions for that to ever change.

“We’ve got to learn from this game,” Bills head coach Sean McDermott said. “There’s a lot of valuable lessons in the game. ... When you go up against a team like the Patriots, they’re going to expose and exploit you when you don’t have those things.”

The crazy thing is as of press time the Bills were 6-6 and remained in the thick of the playoff race with a winnable game against Indianapolis coming up. But don’t let that fool you — this is a team with a long way to go and a lot of work to do.

The most immediate change may happen with Buffalo’s hands forced at quarterback. Tyrod Taylor left the game early in the fourth quarter with a knee injury, which he initially played through after he was banged up on the first play of the game.

It was a gutsy effort from Taylor given those circumstances. But the Patriots game was also a microcosm of his play in his time with the Bills.