Bills cornerback Rasul Douglas returns an interception for a touchdown Sunday against the New England Patriots in Orchard Park, N.Y. Buffalo won, 27-21. Jeffrey T. Barnes/Associated Press
ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — The Buffalo Bills acquired cornerback Rasul Douglas at the trade deadline to shore up a depleted defense and reverse the team’s slide in the standings.
The ballhawking Douglas delivered Sunday, and now Buffalo is on the doorstep of another playoff berth.
Douglas returned one of his two interceptions for a score and tipped a pass to cause a third turnover in helping the Bills maintain their clear path to the playoffs with a 27-21 win over the New England Patriots on Sunday.
“I don’t know what we gave up to get him,” safety Micah Hyde said of the deal in which Buffalo also acquired a fifth-round draft pick by sending a third-round selection to Green Bay. “But we won that trade.”
Josh Allen made up for his poor passing by scoring twice on 1-yard runs, and the three-time AFC East champion Bills (10-6) now prepare for a season-ending showdown at Miami (11-5) next weekend that will decide the division title.
Buffalo enters the final week seeded sixth in the AFC. Even if the Bills lose to Miami, they could still secure their fifth consecutive playoff berth if Pittsburgh loses at Baltimore or Jacksonville loses at Tennessee.
However things go, a patchwork defense that’s spent much of the season without cornerback Tre’Davious White (torn Achilles tendon) and linebacker Matt Milano (right leg) rose up in forcing four turnovers and limiting the Patriots to 16 first downs and 294 yards. Tackle Ed Oliver had an interception on a pass tipped by Douglas, and cornerback Christian Benford forced a fumble by stripping the ball from tight end Pharaoh Brown.
“Resilience. Relentless. We always fight,” Douglas said. “I think that we got our identity now and know what we are capable of doing.”
Buffalo won its fourth straight and fifth in six games by overcoming an inconsistent offense that settled for a touchdown and two field goals off three defensive takeaways inside the Patriots 30 in the first half. The Bills also responded after the Patriots opened the game with Jalen Reagor’s 98-yard kickoff return for a touchdown.
Buffalo went up 10-7 and never relinquished the lead after Allen’s first 1-yard run with 6:37 left in the first quarter, which was set up by Douglas’ first interception at New England’s 14. Douglas made it 20-7 by scoring on his 40-yard interception return 2 1/2 minutes into the second quarter.
New England (4-12) was stout on defense and sloppy on offense in committing four turnovers. The Patriots are in jeopardy of finishing with their fewest wins in Coach Bill Belichick’s tenure, which he opened with a 5-11 record in 2000.
“Obviously a terrible first 20 minutes. From there, we battled away, but obviously gave them too big of a lead and couldn’t quite get it back,” Belichick said. “Just stop turning it over. Once we did that, we were competitive.”
Bailey Zappe finished 16 of 26 for 209 yards and scored on an 18-yard run.
“I don’t think it was difficult to keep fighting because it was more about us than it was about them,” Patriots center David Andrews said. “The first half, you can’t do that. You can’t turn the ball over four times. But no one lost belief. Not one lost faith. Obviously, no one quit.”
Zappe had more interceptions (three) than the Patriots had first downs (two) during New England’s first six possessions. The Patriots, however, pulled within 27-21 on Ezekiel Elliott’s 6-yard run with 11:01 left.
Following a three-and-out on New England’s next possession, the Patriots never got the ball back.
Allen converted three third-down opportunities on Buffalo’s final drive to run out the final 5:02. He capped the time-consuming drive by lowering his head on a 4-yard run on third-and-3 from the Patriots 16.
Allen finished 15 of 30 for 169 yards and an interception. He lamented not putting the game out of reach earlier.
“Three possessions down there in the first quarter, and we only scored one touchdown, so that’s not good enough,” he said. “We lucked out and our defense played a heck of a game. Just trying to find a way to win.”
BY THE NUMBERS
Allen scored his team-leading 15th TD rushing, one short of matching the team’s season record set in a 14-game season by O.J. Simpson 1975. … Allen had his streak of games throwing a touchdown pass end at 23. … Buffalo wide receiver Stefon Diggs had four catches to reach 100 this season. He became the NFL’s third player to have four or more consecutive seasons with 100 catches, joining Antonio Brown (2013-18) and Marvin Harrison (1999-2002).
Send questions/comments to the editors.
