The New England Patriots are set to host the Buffalo Bills in a battle for the AFC East crown at Gillette Stadium on Sunday, December 14 at 1:00 p.m. Check out our preview of the game here!
The New England Patriots are set to host the Buffalo Bills in a battle for the AFC East crown at Gillette Stadium on Sunday, December 14 at 1:00 p.m.
The Bills (9-4) are flying high after a come-from-behind victory against the Bengals, and look to keep their slim hopes of a division title alive by evening the score with the Patriots, who bested them on Sunday Night Football in Orchard Park on October 5.
The Week 5 win was the second of New England’s current 10-game streak, which was paused during an off-week for the team this past weekend.
While they were dormant, the Patriots lost control of the number-one seed in the conference to the Broncos, who beat the Raiders, 24-17, and tied the Patriots league-best record of 11-2. New England now holds the number-two seed in the AFC in a race that’s likely to change hands several more times before the regular season wraps.
A Cincinnati victory at Buffalo on Sunday would have all-but sealed the division for the Patriots, but nonetheless, this week remains a t-shirt-and-hat game for the Patriots, who can clinch the AFC East with a win.
For now, the Bills’ division hopes are alive, though slim, and their path to claim an unlikely sixth-consecutive AFC East title goes through Foxboro. To win the division, Buffalo needs to beat the New England on Sunday and get some help down the stretch, as they’re behind two-games in the standings with only four remaining.
The last time we saw the Patriots, they put together their best complementary team performance of the season in a 33-15 drumming of the Giants that wasn’t as close as the final score indicated.
New England hasn’t lost a game since September 21 vs. Pittsburgh, and looks to keep that streak alive — extra rested, and hopefully, with some key contributors returning from injury.
Defensive Tackle Khyris Tonga, Guard Jared Wilson, and Special Teamer Brenden Schooler were all spotted back at practice to start the week.
Wilson provides an obvious boost for the left side of the offensive line with Will Campbell still on injured reserve through at least the Jets game on December 28.
Tonga has played well-above the value of the one-year, $2.1 million contract he signed with the Patriots this offseason. His presence will help a struggling interior run defense as they continue to scheme around the short-term loss of Milton Williams, who was the anchor along the defensive line and impactful in both the run game and pass game.
Prior to his chest injury, New England also used Tonga as an additional blocker on offense, and during that stretch, were able to find a more consistent rhythm on the ground than at any other point this season.
Perhaps this fact points more to the lack of a true fullback on the roster, but Tonga was quickly able to become an impact player in that role, and the Patriots will be looking to exploit any match-up advantage they can to gain traction on the ground.
Buffalo’s front-seven ranks bottom-five in rushing-yards-against (1,758) this season and are league-worst in rushing-touchdowns-against (19).
The Bills come in with their own challenges in the running game. Buffalo running back James Cook has become a star this year, ranking second in the league with 1,308 rushing yards and adding eight touchdowns to that total. He’s been spectacular in large part, but has an issue that’s all too familiar to the Patriots faithful: fumbles.
Cook has fumbled six times in 2025, including a whopping four fumbles in his last two games. Patriots defenders, who have shown a great ability to swarm tackle under Mike Vrabel, will surely target the football aggressively whenever it’s in Cook’s hands.
As for the passing attacks, it’s Drake vs. Josh III, and we can expect the usual fireworks.
Josh Allen enters the game coming off of a 22-28, 251 yard, three passing touchdown performance vs. the Bengals, adding 78 yards and a touchdown on the ground.
Allen has amassed 3,083 yards and 22 touchdowns (10 interceptions) through the air, posting a 70.1% completion percentage in the process and adding 487 yards and 12 touchdowns on the ground while leading Buffalo to 9-4 on the season.
Facing off against the reigning league MVP for the second time, the Patriots defense will need to come out with the same intensity we saw from them to open Week 5 (and the Giants last week) to keep Allen and the Bills off-balance.
New England has used several different blitz and sim-pressure packages in recent weeks to keep the pre-and-post snap reads constantly changing for opposing quarterbacks.
I expect more of the same this Sunday against Buffalo, as New England’s defenders will aim to speed up Allen’s internal clock early and force him to get rid of the ball, rather than scrambling around and making the off-schedule plays he’s known for. Playing mainly zone on the back-end for a large portion of the season, they’ll keep their eyes on Allen and converge on the ball if he starts to scramble.
After making major strides reducing turnovers last season (just six interceptions in 2024), Allen has once again returned to his gunslinging mentality to compensate for the perceived lack of talent on the perimeter of the Bills offensive attack. As such, he’s accrued multiple turnovers on four separate occasions this season. Buffalo is 0-4 in those games.
For the Patriots, Drake Maye has continued to drop jaws league-wide. At 23-years-old and in his first full-season as the Patriots starter, the list of statistical and analytical metrics that he either leads the league, or is near the top of the league in, is seemingly endless.
Maye’s 2025 campaign has been one of the most efficient we've ever seen, and he’s on-pace to break the Patriots franchise record for completion percentage if he continues his excellence through the final four games.
His equal distribution to different targets has made the Patriots passing attack extremely difficult to stop, and he’ll look to put up another impressive showing against his benchmark comp. In their Week 5 match-up, Maye got the better of Allen, completing 22-of-30 passes for 273 yards in the win.
The Patriots’ signal-caller looked to Stefon Diggs (10 receptions, 146 yards) as a security blanket in his first game returning to Buffalo. After several quiet games in a row, Diggs is sure to be a focal point early and often again against his former team. At very least, the attention he’s sure to draw will open up lanes for others to produce in the passing game.
I’m also looking for a continuation of the pass-protection wrinkles we saw in the Patriots last outing — a heavy use of running backs, tight ends, and extra linemen to give Maye more time to navigate through his reads without Campell suiting up to protect his blind side.
Maye will also continue to chase his first, ever-elusive, 300-yard passing game. With 10 finishes over 250+ yards this season, five games over 280 yards, and no games under 200, it’s a wonder he’s yet to hit the mark. In a game that’s likely to be a tight one from wire-to-wire, Maye should have ample opportunity to hit it again this week.
It’ll be interesting to see the strategy the Bills implore to slow down Maye, who has been equally effective against nearly every coverage look he’s faced this season. He’ll be driving the ball into a secondary that has improved vastly since their first contest, as the Bills now rank third in the NFL in passing-yards-against.
The stakes have been raised again for Maye as he squares off with Allen for the third time. With division-and-conference standings on the line late in the season, it’s hard not to feel like we’re in the beginning stages of two Goliaths within the same division squaring off.
One thing is for sure — I’ll have my popcorn ready!