Josh Allen Breaks the Bills Record in a Home Loss

The New England Patriots beat the Buffalo Bills 29-26 on Sunday at new Highmark Stadium, the first time a visitor has won in the building. Efton Chism III hauled in a one-handed 23-yard touchdown with 1:50 left, and Craig Woodson intercepted Josh Allen on the next series.

It was Buffalo’s first loss under coach Joe Brady, and it came on the same afternoon Allen scored the 88th touchdown of his career from scrimmage, breaking a franchise mark he had shared with Thurman Thomas and Andre Reed.

A Brand-New Stadium’s First Loss

Highmark opened on Sept. 17 with a 41-31 win over Detroit in front of 60,644. The Patriots showed up 1-2, coming off a 35-6 loss at Jacksonville, as 7.5-point road underdogs in a house built to rattle people who do not wear red and blue. Sunday’s crowd was 60,606. New England still left with the win and a 2-2 record. Buffalo fell to 3-1.

The Bills had the louder building and the better quarterback résumé, and they still could not close. Cornerback Dee Alford said after the game that the crowd is so loud the secondary sometimes cannot get the call before New England is already set. That is a home-field problem pointed the wrong way. Eight of Buffalo’s passing touchdowns allowed this season have come in the first three games at the new stadium, and Maye added three more.

Brady’s club opened 2026 by stacking yards and points, then spent Sept. 27 beating the Chargers 24-16 while giving the ball away five times. Allen said that night the Bills did not deserve to win. A week later the habit showed up again in a game they actually lost.

Buffalo’s 26-21 Lead Lasted 2 Minutes 37 Seconds

New England punched first on a 12-play, 97-yard drive and never trailed by more than a possession. Buffalo’s answers kept arriving, and they kept leaking.

THE SCORING AT HIGHMARK

1. Oct. 4, 7:01 left in the first: Romeo Doubs 14-yard touchdown catch from Drake Maye. Patriots 7-0.
2. 14:15 left in the second: James Cook 8-yard run. Tied 7-7.
3. 5:38 left in the second: Rhamondre Stevenson 1-yard run. Patriots 14-7.
4. 1:00 left in the second: Josh Allen 2-yard run, his 88th career touchdown from scrimmage. Tied 14-14.
5. 0:02 left in the second: Tyler Bass 27-yard field goal, set up by Dee Alford’s interception at the New England 9. Bills 17-14.
6. 8:15 left in the third: Doubs 2-yard touchdown catch. Patriots 21-17.
7. 11:07 left in the fourth: Bass 38-yard field goal. Patriots 21-20.
8. 4:27 left in the fourth: Keon Coleman 34-yard touchdown catch from Allen. Two-point pass fails. Bills 26-21.
9. 1:50 left in the fourth: Chism 23-yard touchdown catch from Maye. Maye to Stevenson for two. Patriots 29-26.

Maye’s winning series went eight plays and 73 yards. He completed throws of 14, 12, 19 and 23 yards, the last of them a roll to his right on third-and-5, lofted into a window about as wide as Chism’s right hand. The two-point throw to Stevenson made it a three-point game instead of a kick, which mattered when Allen got the ball at his own 40 with a minute left and all three timeouts.

New England finished with 405 yards and 26 first downs to Buffalo’s 340 and 19, both season lows for the Bills, and held the ball 33:41 to 26:19. Third down was a wash (5 of 12 for the Patriots, 6 of 12 for the Bills). Fourth down was not: New England went 2 for 2.

Drake Maye Matches Three Weeks of Scoring

Maye entered the day with one touchdown pass, six interceptions, a lost fumble, and a 58.6 rating that sat last among quarterbacks with more than two starts. The Patriots had scored 29 offensive points in three games, the fewest by a club coming off an All-Pro season for its quarterback in decades. They scored 29 again before the fourth quarter ended.

MAYE, THREE GAMES AND THEN BUFFALO

He still turned it over twice before halftime, an interception and a lost fumble, and he did not look clean doing it. Coach Mike Vrabel handed him the race-narrowing line anyway. “Gets us back in the race. Josh (Allen) was unbelievable,” Vrabel said. “Felt like Drake went toe to toe with him.”

Maye finished 22 of 37 for 269 yards and those three scores, plus 54 yards on eight carries, and then took the snap after Woodson’s pick and flipped 12 yards to Hunter Henry so the Patriots could kneel. “It’s relieving a little bit,” Maye said. “I know I’ve got to play better and still left some stuff out there today. But we’ve got to build on it.” The three touchdowns were two more than he had thrown in the first three weeks combined.

Efton Chism Was Covering for Two Injured Receivers

Chism is 5-foot-10 and 198 pounds, a rookie free agent out of Eastern Washington who signed on May 9, 2025, after the draft ignored him. New England was already without A.J. Brown (high ankle sprain). Mack Hollins, who had three catches for 53 yards, left with a calf injury in the third quarter. That put the ball in the air for a second-year receiver whose entire NFL receiving line before Sunday was a handful of catches and one prior touchdown, a 10-yard score against the Jets last December.

On the 23-yarder, rookie corner Davison Igbinosun, in his first career start with Christian Benford out (toe), got a hand on Chism’s left arm. Chism kept the right one free, went to the ground, and held on. Doubs, who had the 14-yard and 2-yard scores and finished with six catches for 58 yards, called it the snag of the year. Chism’s own version was shorter.

Shoot, when I’m out there and the ball is in the air, I kind of black out. Drake gave me an opportunity and you have to come down with those opportunities.

Efton Chism III, Patriots wide receiver, after the win

He finished with two catches for 42 yards, both of them on that last drive if you trust the splits (19 and 23). In 2024 at Eastern Washington he put up 120 catches in his senior season for 1,311 yards and 13 touchdowns, a school record, after a five-year college line of 346 receptions, 3,852 yards, and 37 scores. The NFL still let him walk into Foxborough unpicked. Vrabel and Josh McDaniels have a history with smaller receivers. Sunday was the return on that bet, in the building that was not supposed to allow it.

Josh Allen Breaks the Record and Throws It Away

Allen’s 2-yard run with a minute left in the first half was the 88th touchdown of his career from scrimmage and his 86th on the ground, tying Priest Holmes for 16th on the NFL rushing list. He needed less than nine seasons to pass Thomas and Reed, who needed more than a decade each to reach 87. He also went 23 of 33 for 253 yards and the 34-yard strike to Coleman, who finished with six catches for 116 yards after DJ Moore left with a shoulder injury in the second quarter and did not return.

Then he had the ball at the 40, second-and-6, a minute on the clock, the season still unbeaten if he just lived another play. Dre’Mont Jones came free. Allen spun out of the sack, stepped up, and threw deep for Josh Palmer. The ball died. Woodson caught it at the New England 19.

Just a flood concept. They went man coverage, I made a guy miss, threw one up. Should’ve thrown that one out of bounds and live another day. It stings. I feel like we hurt ourselves tonight.

Josh Allen, Bills quarterback, after the loss

Brady took the call. “We obviously have plenty of time right there and I’m going to start by saying I got to have a better play call in that situation and we got to protect and put them in a better position to have success,” he said. Khalil Shakir had already lost a fumble in a two-minute drill before halftime, even though Alford’s pick still produced Bass’s 27-yard kick. Brady boiled the afternoon down to two two-minute situations with turnovers. “We protect the football, we’re going to win the game. It’s not very hard.”

Shakir still led Buffalo with seven catches for 82 yards. Tight end Dalton Kincaid, who had 225 receiving yards in Weeks 1 and 2, saw two targets for seven yards. “I gotta be better. There’s no reason Dalton Kincaid should have two targets,” Brady said. Cook ran 12 times for 75 yards and the 8-yard score, but the Bills managed only 28 rushing yards on 11 carries in the first half and went three-and-out on two of their first three series, then again on their second drive after halftime.

Buffalo’s Secondary Cannot Hear the Play

The defense that was supposed to feast at home gave up 405 yards and 5.5 yards per play. It was already missing Benford and defensive lineman T.J. Sanders (appendectomy). Then the trainers started a list that looked like a depth-chart rewrite.

WHO LEFT THE FIELD

• Mack Hollins: Calf injury in the third quarter after 3 catches for 53 yards, which put Chism on the field for the winner.
• DJ Moore: Shoulder injury on a diving catch in the second quarter, his second early exit in three weeks, after 1 catch for 11 yards.
• Ed Oliver: Knee injury in the third quarter, the interior piece Buffalo could least spare.
• Dee Alford: Right ankle in the second half, headed for an MRI, after the interception that set up Bass before halftime.
• Christian Benford: Already out with a toe injury, which handed Igbinosun a first start on Chism’s touchdown.

Te’Cory Couch and Landon Jackson also went down; Jackson was cleared to return. Igbinosun called it a humbling first start and said he would keep the tape. Greg Rousseau, asked about a first loss, did not dress it up. “17-0 has never happened,” he said. “You’ve got to find ways to just get better and go back to the drawing board.”

Alford’s noise complaint is the detail the box score cannot hold. A $2 billion-class stadium with new acoustics is a weapon only if the home secondary can still hear the call. If it cannot, Maye gets a free play clock, Doubs gets two scores, and a 5-foot-10 undrafted receiver gets a one-handed look in the back of the end zone.

The AFC East Is a One-Game Race Again

Vrabel’s club is the defending division champion and last season’s Super Bowl runner-up. A 1-3 hole after Buffalo would have been a long climb in a four-team division that still has to play itself. At 2-2, New England is one game back of a Bills team that has now lost at home and on the road to the Rams next.

AFC EAST AFTER WEEK 4

The Patriots host Las Vegas on Sunday, Oct. 11, at 1 p.m. ET. Buffalo will visit the Rams on Oct. 12 at 8:15 p.m. EST on Monday night. Brady’s postgame standard was not the record, and it was not the new building. “The wins and losses are never what it’s about. It’s about, are we playing clean, winning football and giving ourselves a chance to win?” On Sunday they had the lead, the ball, and the crowd, and they still had to answer that out loud.

Allen has the franchise touchdown record to himself. Maye has a night that looks, on paper, like the quarterback who finished as MVP runner-up a year ago. The only number that travels is the one on the scoreboard in a stadium that had not lost to anybody until a backup receiver caught a ball with one hand.

Frequently Asked Questions

When Did Buffalo Open New Highmark Stadium?

The Bills played their first regular-season game in the new building on Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026, beating the Detroit Lions 41-31 in front of a listed sellout of 60,644. The stadium sits close to the old Highmark site in Orchard Park and hosted its first visiting loss 17 days later, when the Patriots won 29-26 on Oct. 4 in front of 60,606.

What Did Efton Chism III Do in College?

Chism spent five seasons at Eastern Washington and left with 346 receptions for 3,852 yards and 37 touchdowns in 53 games. His 2024 line was 120 catches, 1,311 yards, and 13 scores, a school record, and he led FCS with 10 receptions per game. The Patriots signed him as an undrafted free agent on May 9, 2025; his first NFL touchdown was a 10-yard catch against the Jets on Dec. 28, 2025, making Sunday’s winner his second.

What Franchise Record Did Josh Allen Set Against the Patriots?

Allen’s 2-yard rushing touchdown with a minute left in the first half was the 88th of his career from scrimmage, moving him past Hall of Famers Thurman Thomas and Andre Reed, who had been tied at 87. It was also his 86th rushing score, tying Priest Holmes for 16th on the NFL’s career rushing touchdown list. He entered the game with 85 rushing scores and two receiving touchdowns in his ninth season.

How Many Turnovers Did the Bills Have Against the Chargers?

Buffalo committed five turnovers in a 24-16 win over Los Angeles on Sept. 27, the last time a Bills team had won with a minus-four turnover margin or worse since 1997. Allen threw two interceptions and lost a fumble, and James Cook and Dalton Kincaid also lost fumbles. Allen said after that game, “Five turnovers. We don’t deserve to win that one.”