Bills playoff hopes sill alive despite loss to Patriots: 5 Takeaways

The Buffalo Bills lost to the Patriots for the second time this season but it hasn’t squandered their chances of ending their playoff drought in Week 17.

For the second time in four weeks the Buffalo Bills came up short in trying to upset their bitter rivals the New England Patriots.

Despite losing to the Patriots in Foxborough, in the grand scheme of things the loss hasn’t derailed the Bills chances of getting back into the playoffs.

The Bills had multiple opportunities to win their first game against the Patriots since October, 2016 but just like the game in Week 13 a sloppy second half was their downfall.

For the second straight game the Bills kept the Patriots in a close game for the first half and prevented Tom Brady from making big plays in the air.

But an inability on defence to stop running back Dion Lewis and being unable to keep up on offence showed that while the Bills have improved they still need to improve if they are to truly go toe-to-toe with New England.

The Bills will need to put the loss behind them as they will be playing for their playoff lives on Sunday against the Miami Dolphins.

Here are our five takeaways from the Bills’ loss to the Patriots.