ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) Receiver Stefon Diggs is quite comfortable putting on a show in Buffalo. The big difference on Sunday night was doing so for the Buffalo Bills\u2019 division rival New England Patriots.<\/p>\n
Diggs had 10 catches for 146 yards, with 119 coming in the second half, in a 23-20 win over the Bills sealed by Andy Borregales hitting a 52-yard field goal with 15 seconds remaining.<\/p>\n
In teaming up with quarterback Drake Maye and Rhamondre Stevenson, who scored two touchdowns rushing, the Patriots left the NFL without an undefeated team five weeks into the season.<\/p>\n
Diggs followed up his six-catch, 101-yard outing in in last week’s 43-13 win over Carolina by topping it in the 31-year-old\u2019s first return to Orchard Park, New York, since his four-year stint in Buffalo ended with him being traded to Houston in April 2024.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was lit, prime time,” said Diggs, who set nearly every single-season franchise receiving record in Buffalo during his four-year tenure. \u201cIt was electrifying. I knew it was going to be a test for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a test the up-and-coming Patriots passed under Maye, the blossoming second-year starter, first-year coach Mike Vrabel and veteran running back Rhamondre Stevenson, who scored on 4- and 7-yard runs.<\/p>\n
The Patriots won back-to-back games for the first time since winning three in a row midway through the 2022 season. New England has a winning record through five games for the first time since opening the 2019 season 8-0.<\/p>\n
And the Patriots tightened the AFC East race by moving within one game of the five-time defending division champion Bills (4-1).<\/p>\n
Maye finished 22 of 30 for 273 yards, and was near-perfect in the second half by going 13 of 14 for 184 yards. No throw was more impressive than when he began the final drive by eluding the grasp of Bills defensive tackle DaQuan Jones and getting off a 12-yard completion to Diggs.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know this was his storybook,\u201d Maye said of the receiver who signed with New England in March, and after his time in Houston was cut short by a torn knee ligament last season.<\/p>\n
\u201cComing back here first game, prime time, you could see it all week. He just loves football,\u201d Maye said. \u201cHe\u2019s got a lot in the tank left, so it\u2019s good he\u2019s a Patriot.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Bills essentially beat themselves in snapping a 14-game home winning streak that was one short of the franchise record and dated to a 24-22 loss to Denver on Nov. 13, 2023.<\/p>\n
The Bills had three turnovers, two by Allen. He muffed a handoff to tight end Dawson Knox to end Buffalo\u2019s opening drive. Allen was also picked off by Marcus Jones at New England\u2019s 10, with the Bills trailing 13-10.<\/p>\n
Receiver Keon Coleman lost a fumble at his own 11.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just played sloppy. Not going to win a football game turning the ball over three times,\u201d Allen said. \u201cThat\u2019s just bad football. We just did not play good tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Allen, last season\u2019s MVP, finished 22 of 31 for 253 yards and threw touchdown passes to Coleman and Curtis Samuel.<\/p>\n
Turnovers weren\u2019t the only issue as Buffalo was limited scoring 20 or fewer points for just the fourth time since the start of 2024.<\/p>\n
Before Borregales\u2019 decisive kick, the Bills\u2019 drive stalled at New England\u2019s 28 and Buffalo settled for Matt Prater\u2019s 45-yard field goal to tie the game with 2:17 left.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought we beat ourselves,\u201d coach Sean McDermott said. \u201cJust not enough complementary football. Just didn\u2019t seem like we were into a rhythm offensively enough. And when we did, we had penalties, self-inflicted wounds early on in the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Bills had 11 accepted penalties for 90 yards against them.<\/p>\n
Buffalo and Philadelphia entered the day as the NFL\u2019s last unbeaten teams. The Eagles lost to visiting Denver. It\u2019s the first time since 2014 and seventh time since the 1970 merger that no team has started 5-0.<\/p>\n
The Patriots\u2019 defense limited James Cook to 49 yards on 15 carries. Cook was held under 100 yards from scrimmage for the first time this season, and his streak of eight games with a rushing touchdown was snapped.<\/p>\n
Patriots: RB Antonio Gibson did not return after sustaining a knee injury while returning a kickoff six minutes into the second quarter.<\/p>\n
Bills: C Connor McGovern returned after having tests on his hand. LB Matt Milano did not return after aggravating a pectoral injury that forced him to miss the previous two games. DT Ed Oliver missed his fourth straight game with a sprained ankle.<\/p>\n
Patriots: Continue a three-game road swing at New Orleans next Sunday.<\/p>\n
Bills: Play at Atlanta in a Monday night game on Oct. 13.<\/p>\n
—<\/p>\n
AP NFL: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nfl<\/p>\n
\n Copyright 2025 STATS LLC and Associated Press. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of STATS LLC and Associated Press is strictly prohibited.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) Receiver Stefon Diggs is quite comfortable putting on a show in Buffalo. The big…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":196148,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,398,396,397,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-204771","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-football","11":"tag-ncaafootball","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}