ORCHARD PARK — The narrative was, given their lack of success the past 19 years — 33 losses in 37 meetings — that the Bills’ best outcome on Sunday afternoon at New Era Field wouldn’t likely be a victory over perpetual division-champion New England, but rather a good, competitive end-to-end showing.

The final score would seem to indicate that: Patriots 16, Buffalo 10.

But, alas, for the Bills, this was not a morale victory … no infusion of NFL credibility.

This was nothing more than a galling, wasted opportunity that will haunt this franchise for the rest of the season.

On a day when New England’s Hall-of-Fame-bound quarterback Tom Brady endured one of the worst games of his 20-year career … when the Bills’ defense played lights out … when Buffalo outgained the Pats by over 150 yards, victory still eluded coach Sean McDermott, who had two hands in this brutal loss.

The Bills never led, but after they scored a touchdown on the opening drive of the second half there were six possessions that could have put them on top, and the result was two interceptions (a third was overturned making it a failed fourth down) and three punts.

Rarely, in the 47-year history of this Bills home field have both starting quarterbacks looked so bad.

Brady was 18-of-39 passing — 11 of those dump-offs to backs — for 150 yards with no touchdowns, an end zone interception and an anemic 45.9 passer rating (over 75.0 is average).

When he has a game like that — and it’s rare — you had better beat him.

Instead, he WON the game!

And that’s because Bills’ counterpart Josh Allen endured the worst start of his two-year, 16-game career.

Allen finished 13-of-28 for 153 yards with no touchdowns and three interceptions, two when he was seemingly trying to throw the ball away, the other an all-too-familiar up-for-grabs deep ball. His final passer rating was 24.0 and that was an improvement over the first quarter (0.0)  or halftime (2.2).

He was also sacked four times. In addition, Allen was the only other rusher — five carries for 26 yards — besides tailback Frank Gore and at the end of a 7-yard run he was tagged in the head by cornerback Jonathan Jones and after laying on the field for two minutes, left the field, went to the locker room and didn’t return.

He was unavailable to the media after the game in the concussion protocol.

The reality is, even an average game by Allen might well have been enough for Buffalo to win the game, but horrendous didn’t cut it.

And while it would be nice to dismiss the performance as an aberration, Allen has shown a propensity to be careless with the ball and that’s a habit which hardly ensures NFL longevity. Quarterbacks who lose games for their teams aren’t usually long for the league.

But, on this day, Allen had a co-conspirator.

McDermott hardly distinguished himself in a game where he went head-to-head with the game’s best coach, Bill Belichick.

He went 0-for-2 on his pair of challenges, wasting two key timeouts.

No problem having a challenge overturned, it happens more often than not. The issue is making the right choice in what to challenge.

In the first half, New England running back James White seemingly gained a yard on 3rd-and-1 for a first down at the Pats’ 15-yard line. An enraged McDermott challenged the spot— always a tough sell — and lost. As it turned out, New England drove 93 yards, but Brady was intercepted in the end zone and got nothing from the possession.

Then, in the third quarter, Brady hit wide receiver Josh Gordon for a 31-yard connection that set the Pats up, 1st-and-goal at the Buffalo 7.

McDermott challenged that Gordon was guilty of offensive pass interference — a new option this season — and he lost again.

Still, Buffalo’s defense toughened as the Pats settled for a field goal which made it 16-10.

That was one of three wasted second-half timeouts, which the Bills could have used in the late going.

The first one was frittered away before a New England punt … which made no sense.

And the last was used after the first snap of the fourth quarter with the Bills facing 3rd-and-8 at the Pats’ 45yard line. It preceded the play on which Allen was injured.

As a dejected McDermott admitted after the game, “I thought our defense gave us a chance to win the game …”

He’s right, of course. It did.

But between Allen’s errant throws and McDermott’s ill-considered decisions, that didn’t happen. 

(Chuck Pollock, a Times Herald senior sports columnist, can be reached at cpollock@oleantimesherald.com)