Buffalo's 17-point quarter could not cover two scoreless ones.

Buffalo's first loss of the season was not a wire-to-wire offensive failure. The Bills put up 17 points in the second quarter and nine in the fourth. They also went scoreless in the first and third, leaving New England enough room to win 29-26 at Highmark Stadium on Sunday. Buffalo is 3-1; the Patriots are 2-2 after their first AFC East meeting of the season.

The quarter chart is the cleanest way to see the unevenness: Buffalo scored 0, 17, 0 and 9. New England scored 7, 7, 7 and 8. One explosive stretch did not erase two empty periods. This does not mean every stalled possession had the same cause, or that the late Josh Allen interception alone decided the afternoon. It means the Bills had too little scoring continuity for the margin they were defending.

The 17-point burst was not a full-game offense

Allen's late interception was costly because it removed a chance to answer the Patriots' go-ahead touchdown. The NFL's game account says New England then trusted Drake Maye to throw for a closing first down to Hunter Henry. Keon Coleman had given Buffalo a major receiving contribution with 116 yards and a touchdown, so the passing game had answers at times. The problem was sustaining them across four quarters.

Buffalo's defense created two turnovers, yet New England still gained 405 yards and 26 first downs, according to the NFL. Maye passed for 269 yards and three touchdowns and added 54 rushing yards. Four Patriots drives lasted at least eight plays. Those are not the numbers of an opponent living only on one broken coverage or a short field. The Bills made New England work, but could not consistently end its possessions.

New England kept earning another snap

A three-point division loss is not a season verdict. It is a sharper question for a 3-1 team than the record alone suggests: can Buffalo pair its second-quarter ceiling with enough ordinary, productive drives and defensive stops to control a close game? The next answer has to come on the field, not from replaying one interception in isolation.