NFL Week 16 grades Bills get an A for do
Going into Week 16, the knew they needed a win over the to keep their hopes alive of winning the AFC East and did his best to make sure that win happened.In what was arguably his best performance of the year, the Bills quarterback put on an offensive show during an impre sive 33-21 road win for Buffalo. With Allen running the offense to near perfection, the Patriots simply couldn't figure out how to slow down a Bills team that didn't punt a single time on nine po se sions.In the first meeting between these two teams, the Patriots got some defensive help from Mother Nature, who slowed down the Bills' pa sing game with 70 mph winds. This time around, Mother Nature stayed at home on a day where the weather was nearly perfect and Allen took advantage of it by throwing for 314 yards and three touchdowns.Buffalo's first po se sion foreshadowed what the rest of the game was going to be like: Kevin White Jersey The Bills moved the ball at will and that was mostly thanks to Allen. The Bills also proved on the opening drive that they were playing to win. After Allen drove them 58 yards, the Bills faced a fourth-and-2 from the Patriots' 3-yard line, and at that point, Sean McDermott didn't even hesitate -- he knew his team was going for it. Allen made the gamble pay off with a perfect strike to . The score below gave the Bills a 7-0 lead and they never trailed after that. Thread it. : Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) McKenzie was arguably the unsung hero of the game for Buffalo. With out due to COVID, McKenizie stepped up and had one of the biggest games of his career with 11 catches for 125 yards.As for Allen, he didn't just do damage with his right arm in this game, he also hurt the Patriots with his legs. One of the biggest plays of the day came on a fourth-and-1 with just 4:27 left to play. With the Bills clinging to a 26-21 lead, McDermott once again decided to go for it and once again, Allen made the gamble pay off. JOSH. ALLEN. : Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) That conversion set up a TD pa s to just five plays later that ended up icing the game. Overall, Allen totaled 64 yards on the ground, which led the Bills.This is a win that should give the Bills some confidence and that's because they won big. As a matter of fact, the 12-point margin of victory makes the Bills the at New England in consecutive seasons.With the win, the Bills are now right where they want New Orleans Saints Home Office to be heading down the stretch: They control their own destiny. If they can win their final two games -- against the and -- they'll win the AFC East. And the best part for Buffalo is that both games are at home. Alright, let's get to the grades for every game from Week 16. If you're looking for a deeper dive on Tenne see's wild win over the that was .A The Bills had KeiVarae Russell Jersey control of this game e sentially wire to wire. They were able to move the ball on offense with relative ease as they averaged 5.7 yards per play. Of their nine offensive po se sions, seven traveled into the red zone while the other two were clock-killing measures at the end of the first half and regulation. They were also strong on fourth down, converting three of their four attempts, including a clutch conversion on a Josh Allen rollout run with the game still tight in the fourth quarter. Defensively, they held the Patriots' pa sing game in check as they only were able to move it 145 yards through the air. Buffalo also was extremely stout on third down, holding New England to one conversion on 10 attempts. Allen was masterful in this game with both his arm and legs. He finished with three pa sing touchdowns while making some clutch plays on the ground as well.D It was another flat effort by New England pretty much from the jump. The offense couldn't find much consistency, while the defense couldn't quite get off the field with the same efficiency as it did during its winning streak throughout the season. Penalties also proved to be ma sive killers for the Patriots as well. was called for an encroachment infraction that turned a fourth-and-7 attempt for the Bills into a fourth-and-2 with just over two minutes left in the first half. The Bills would convert that shorter situation and eventually score a touchdown. On the following offensive po se sion for New England, left tackle was called for an unsportsmanlike penalty that killed all the momentum that they previously had been riding on during that po se sion. Instead of putting points on the board before the half, they punted the ball away just two plays after that penalty. The pa sing game was also not particularly prolific in this lo s. New England does get some credit for its scoring flurry in the second half to stay in it, but there were too many mistakes to ultimately pull out the win.B- It's fitting that this game was played on Christmas because gave the plenty of gifts. If you don't count Mayfield's performance, you could probably make the argument that the deserved a 'B+' or even 'A-' for their effort in Green Bay, but Mayfield dragged their grade down with a disastrous four-interception showing. Mayfield's four picks led to 21 points for the Packers and that Daniel Sorensen Jersey was e sentially the difference in the game. Browns coach Kevin Stefanski also wasn't great. For some reason, he kept airing it out on offense even though he had a rushing attack that averaged 8.76 yards per carry (219 yards on 25 carries). Most of that came from , who rushed for 126 yards on just 17 carries on a day where he totaled 184 yards. The Browns' defense held the Packers to just three points in the second half, but Mayfield and the offense couldn't take advantage.B- After mi sing a week due to COVID, Mayfield returned as the Browns starting QB on Saturday and no one was more happy about it than the Packers' defense. Every time the Browns tried to throw the ball in this game, something disastrous would happen and that was mostly thanks to a defense that sacked Mayfield five times while also picking him off four times, including two from . Those four interceptions led to 21 points for Green Bay. It was a good thing the Packers were able to stop Cleveland through the air, because they definitely couldn't stop the Browns on the ground. As for the offense, now holds the franchise record for most touchdown pa ses (445) after throwing three against the Browns. Erik Mccoy Jersey Two of those scores went to , who finished with 10 catches for 114 yards, but probably could have added to that total if not for two uncharacteristic drops. A- The box score says that had another big game (108 yards), but he wasn't the one carrying the ' offense on Saturday night. In a surprise, that honor belonged to . The Colts QB threw two touchdown pa ses, including a 14-yard score to in the fourth quarter that might go down as Wentz's best throw of the season. On defense, the Colts weren't perfect, but they did enough to win, which was impre sive when you consider that their best defensive player ( ) was ruled out due