Lack of Stephon Gilmore exposed
Speaking of Allen, the quarterback and another guy really took advantage of there being no Stephon Gilmore out there for the Patriots. Naturally that was wide receiver Stefon Diggs.
Diggs had his best game with the Bills, at least in terms of scoring. Diggs entered Week 16 with five touchdowns on the year… but ended up scoring three times.
Diggs’ highlight-reel moment was his 50-yard score, his first of those three, which came early in the second quarter. That one put the Bills up 24-9. As the Bills started circling the wagons in the second half, he added two more, the second of which was picture-perfect Allen to Diggs. The QB seemingly had no where to go with the ball, rolled backward, to his left, back again, and found Diggs crossing the back of the end zone while the Bills were already threatening in the red zone.
While the Pats did lose the services of Gilmore due to a quad injury last week, Diggs’ game was seemingly a little surprising, at least looking at it through a Patriots spectrum. New England head coach Bill Belichick is known for trying to shut down an opponent’s best weapon on offense. That’s clearly Diggs, and he still had a cool nine catches for 145 yards.