New England Patriots
“A [practice squad] guy made a helluva catch. Probably won’t hear from him again, respectfully.”
Drake Maye and the New England Patriots delivered a statement win in Buffalo on Sunday — orchestrating a fourth-quarter comeback drive to hand the Bills their first loss in the new Highmark Stadium by way of a 29-26 final.
It was an impressive bounce-back performance from Maye and the Patriots, with New England emerging victorious from a back-and-forth bout against its AFC East foe thanks to a game-winning touchdown snag from Efton Chism in crunch time.
Count Buffalo safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson as unimpressed.
“Our best is required all the time, not just certain times. And I feel like today, they got the best of us,” Gardner-Johnson said postgame in video captured by ROC-TV’s Thad Brown. “We’ve just got to come out and play better.
“Everybody knows who’s the better team. Everybody says, ‘Oh, you see the score.’ But the better team lost today. But we’ll come back. We’ll be back.”
Gardner-Johnson, who finished with four tackles in the loss for Buffalo, was part of a defensive unit that Maye and the Patriots capitalized on during multiple drives.
After a turbulent start to the season, Maye rebounded at Highmark Stadium. Even with a pair of turnovers, Maye generated 322 total yards of offense with three touchdowns — with New England holding the edge in first downs (26-19), total plays (73-54), and total yards (405-340) against the Bills.
Even with New England’s defense taking the field without two of its top players in Christian Gonzalez and Christian Barmore, the Patriots largely kept Josh Allen and an explosive Buffalo offense in check.
New England forced two turnovers against Buffalo, with the Bills’ potent ground game finishing with just 91 total yards on the ground.
Gardner-Johnson in particular didn’t have many positives to say about Chism — who gave New England the lead for good with his one-handed snag in the fourth quarter.
“We’re not going to get into no bulletin-board material,” Gardner-Johnson said before immediately giving the Patriots plenty of bulletin-board material. “A [practice squad] guy made a helluva catch. Probably won’t hear from him again, respectfully. I say that with a lot of confidence because it’s like [Maye] didn’t put his confidence in his best player. If that was, he would have thrown it to [Romeo] Doubs or somebody. But they won the game, whatever.
“They ain’t do [expletive] better than us. We gotta play better,” he added. “And they can mark that. We’ll be back, see them again at the end of the year. So, they better have that same energy. They put up what? 20-something points? They barely scored. They struggled all game.”
While New England’s offense has struggled for most of this season, Sunday’s matchup against the Bills was seemingly the “get-right” game that Maye and Co. needed.
Despite Gardner-Johnson’s harsh claims, Chism has never been on an NFL practice squad since breaking into the league with New England as an undrafted free agent last year. The Eastern Washington University product made the Patriots’ 53-man roster out of training camp in both 2025 and 2026.
Ironically, Gardner-Johnson was on the Ravens’ practice squad at one point during the 2025 season before getting cut after just a week in Baltimore.
Gardner-Johnson and the Bills will have a rematch against the Patriots later on this season, with New England hosting them in Foxborough on Sunday, Dec. 6.
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