Stefon Diggs looked right at home in Buffalo once again — just not in the uniform anyone expected. The veteran receiver torched his former team for 10 catches and 146 yards, including 119 in the second half, helping the New England Patriots edge the Buffalo Bills 23-20 on Sunday Night Football. Rookie kicker Andy Borregales sealed the victory with a 52-yard field goal with 15 seconds remaining, capping a statement win for the resurgent Patriots.
“It was his storybook,” Patriots quarterback Drake Maye said of Diggs, who signed with New England in March after a brief and injury-shortened stint in Houston. “He wanted this one, and we wanted it for him.”
Playing in Buffalo for the first time since his four-year stint with the Bills ended via trade in April 2024, the 31-year-old Diggs delivered a performance worthy of prime time.
He followed up his six-catch, 101-yard game from last week’s 43-13 rout of Carolina by nearly single-handedly taking over the second half. None of his plays were bigger than a 12-yard reception on New England’s final drive — a pass Maye got off while evading the grasp of defensive tackle DaQuan Jones — that jump-started the Patriots’ game-winning march.
Diggs’ emotional and electric return wasn’t just personal redemption; it also tightened the AFC East race.
Quarterback Drake Maye, the blossoming second-year starter, continued to grow under first-year head coach Mike Vrabel. Maye finished 22 of 30 for 273 yards, including an efficient 13 of 14 for 184 yards after halftime.
Meanwhile, veteran running back Rhamondre Stevenson powered in for touchdowns from four and seven yards out, pacing a balanced New England offense that controlled the clock and capitalized on Buffalo’s mistakes.
The win marked several milestones for the Patriots (3-2). Their first back-to-back victories since midway through the 2022 season. Their first winning record through five games since starting 8-0 in 2019. And perhaps most notably, the result left the NFL without an undefeated team five weeks into the 2025 season.
For Buffalo (4-1), the night was marred by uncharacteristic sloppiness and self-inflicted wounds.
Quarterback Josh Allen, last season’s MVP, completed 22 of 31 passes for 253 yards and two touchdowns — one each to Keon Coleman and Curtis Samuel — but committed two costly turnovers. He muffed a handoff exchange with tight end Dawson Knox to kill the Bills’ opening drive and later threw a red-zone interception to cornerback Marcus Jones with Buffalo trailing 13-10.
Coleman also lost a fumble at the Bills’ own 11-yard line, gifting the Patriots another short field.
Add in 11 accepted penalties for 90 yards, and Buffalo’s 14-game home winning streak — one shy of the franchise record — was gone.
Before Borregales’ game-winner, the Bills had tied it at 20 on Matt Prater’s 45-yard field goal with 2:17 left, but their defense couldn’t get the crucial stop.
Buffalo and Philadelphia both entered Sunday as the league’s final unbeaten teams. The Bills’ loss, combined with the Eagles’ home defeat to Denver, means no NFL team has started 5-0 for the first time since 2014 — and only the seventh time since the 1970 merger.
New England’s defense quietly held firm, limiting Bills running back James Cook to just 49 yards on 15 carries. Cook’s streaks of eight straight games with a rushing touchdown and 100 yards from scrimmage were both snapped.
Patriots (3-2): Continue a three-game road swing at New Orleans next Sunday. Bills (4-1): Head south for a Monday night matchup at Atlanta on October 13.
With Maye maturing, Vrabel instilling toughness, and Diggs thriving in new colors, the Patriots’ rebuild suddenly looks ahead of schedule — and the AFC East just got a lot more interesting.
