Buffalo’s win over the New England Patriots brought them to a 12-3 record, keeping their dreams of the No. 1 seed in the AFC alive for at least another week, but the win was far from convincing. 

All the negatives aside, the team’s ability to change course and put the clamps on New England was something about this game that should encourage Bills fans.

“The second half was a lot better,” head coach Sean McDermott said after the win. “and controlling the line of scrimmage, offensively and and defensively, and with the takeaways. But you can’t start a game the way we did with the kickoff return and just getting off to the overall a bad start. So I applaud the guys for, you know, finding a way, and the coaching staff as well for some good adjustments at halftime.”

“The second half, we came out with a great drive by our offense in the first half of the second half, and you could just tell the difference, right?” McDermott commented later. “So when you can win the line of scrimmage, it certainly sets your offense up and makes it hard on a defense.”

The second half was better in all phases. After giving up a quick 14 points in the first quarter, the defense shut down the Patriots, generating a forced fumble that the Bills recovered, an interception off rookie quarterback Drake Maye, and they forced Maye into an errant backwards swing pass that was a live ball, recovered in the end zone for a touchdown by Buffalo. 

And that is the silver lining to this game for Bills Mafia. The second half was the best we’ve seen the Buffalo defense perform in recent weeks, despite missing both starting safeties, a starting cornerback, and a starting linebacker. It was the most opportunistic and aggressive version of the Bills’ defense that we have seen since their Week 13 meeting with the San Francisco 49ers.

What’s hard to stomach about games like this one is we know the immense upside that this team has when they’re playing at their best. Against an inferior opponent, this was nowhere close to Buffalo’s ceiling, but the second half was a stark difference from how the game started.

Now if that can just be harnessed into a full 60 minutes, the Bills will be a tough out come playoffs.