New England Patriots links 12/27/21 - Third down’s the harm in Pats’ icky loss to the Bills

TEAM TALK

• Post Game Notes: Patriots vs. Bills. Harris goes over 100 yards for the fifth time in 2021.
• Erik Scalavino’s game observations: Post-Christmas, Bills come due.
• Mike Dussault offers 5 keys from Patriots 33-21 loss to the Bills: For the second game in a row, the Patriots fell into a double-digit hole and were unable to ever get control.
• Pool Report: Mike Reiss interview with referee Shawn Smith. /Insufficient explanations as usual.
• Post Game Quotes: Patriots and Bills.
• Angelique Fiske reports Mac Jones gifts his offensive line cryptocurrency.
• Post Game Pressers: Bill Belichick - Damien Harris - Mac Jones - Devin McCourty - Kyle Van Noy - David Andrews -Jakobi Meyers.
• What went wrong: Buffalo takes AFC East lead. (1.36 min. video)

LOCAL LINKS

• Zack Cox relays Bill Belichick on the ‘biggest problem’ for his team yesterday: Third-down execution on both sides of the ball. ‘That was the story of the game’
• Evan Lazar tells us ten things we learned from the Patriots disappointing loss to the Bills. 1. Bills QB Josh Allen was the best player on the field.
• Zack Cox recaps how the Pats decisively lost Sunday: Isaiah McKenzie vs. Myles Bryant was a big win for Buffalo.
• Steve Hewitt highlights how Damien Harris shines in return from injury, but his career-high three touchdowns was not enough in loss to Bills
• Mike Reiss says Mac Jones’ rookie growing pains are showing up at a tough time with the Patriots battling for playoff position.
• Karen Guregian points out Josh Allen vs. Mac Jones isn’t a fair fight, and that’s a problem for the Patriots
• Karen Guregian focuses on Mac Jones’ struggles with accuracy.
• Mike D’Abate (PatriotMaven) Patriots lessons learned from Week 16 loss to the Bills. 1. For the Bills, this wasn’t strictly business, this was personal.
• Zack Cox gives us his Patriots Takeaways: Six things we learned from the loss. 1. Maybe this team isn’t a Super Bowl contender after all.
• Nick Goss gives us his key takeaways from the lackluster 33-21 loss. 2. Damien Harris bounces back strong.
• Clare Cooper (PatsPropaganda) The Patriots take a Bills bashing on Boxing Day.
• Andrew Callahan relays Devin McCourty lamenting the lack of adjustments against Josh Allen. Down to down, Allen adapted to the defense in front of him. Meanwhile, the Patriots remained relatively stagnant. They played soft zone coverage, blitzed sparingly and deployed five defensive backs with the same three corners on more than half their snaps.
• Mark Daniels says this season isn’t lost since the Patriots should make the playoffs, but forget about another deep playoff run. The Patriots have been exposed.
• Mike D’Abate (PatriotMaven) Sing a song of sixth place: Patriots playoff picture following their Week 16 loss to Bills. /A pocket full of wry...
• Matt Dolloff reports the Patriots no longer control their division destiny after loss to Bills. /Lost control of their bowels yesterday too.
• Alex Barth writes how the Pats blew their chance to put themselves in the drivers seat of the division race.
• Joy Manning (BostonSportsChick) Results of Patriots’ opponents’ drives Weeks 1-16.
• Dakota Randall talks about how David Andrews and the referee explained that taunting penalty.
• Mike Reiss reports the NFL fined Kyle Dugger for fight with Colts’ Michael Pittman Jr. Pittman was not fined, neither was T.Y. Hilton for making contact with an official. /Rules for thee, but not for me.

NATIONAL NEWS

• Ben Cooper (PFF) NFL Week 16 game recap: Buffalo Bills 33, New England Patriots 21.
• Shalise Manza Young (Yahoo! Sports) Josh Allen’s $258M game helps Bills answer bell, take control of AFC East from Patriots.
• Judy Battista (NFL.com) Undermanned Buffalo Bills return to top of AFC East with dominant win over Patriots.
• Mike Florio (ProFootballTalk) Bill Belichick hasn’t heard from Jaguars or Raiders about possible assistant coach interviews.
• Alex McShane (Bitcoin Magazine) Patriots quarterback ‘Santa Mac’ Jones gifts Bitcoin to his entire offensive line.
• Albert Breer (SI) Monday Morning QB: How the Patriots have pushed the Bills to get better; Plus, how the Colts keep adjusting, Cooper Kupp’s record season, Nick Sirianni in quarantine and more from the NFL’s Week 16.
• Peter King (ProFootballTalk) FMIA Week 16: How Colts overcame Covid on Christmas. Plus the most important win of Josh Allen’s life.
• Around the NFL (NFL.com) 2021 NFL season, Week 16: What we learned from Sunday’s games.
• NFL Nation (ESPN) Week 16 takeaways: What we learned, big questions for every game and future team outlooks
• Connor Groel (NFL.com) NFL stats and records, Week 16: Burrow airs it out; More.
• Frank Schwab (Yahoo! Sports) NFL winners and losers: Ravens season is falling apart under weight of injuries and COVID-19; Buffalo Bills, likely AFC East champs.
• Kevin Seifert (ESPN) NFL playoff picture 2021: Week 16 standings, bracket, clinching scenarios, division races and postseason outlook.
• Jim Trotter (NFL.com) Eight burning questions as NFL playoff picture comes into view.
• Mike Florio (ProFootballTalk) Who’s in danger of getting fired by Tuesday morning?