New England Patriots: Studs and duds vs. Bills in Week 4

Stud: Kyle Van Noy

Another stud for the Patriots in their fourth win of the season was New England linebacker Kyle Van Noy. Van Noy paced the stellar Patriots defensive unit with a game-high eight tackles in total, adding two sacks in the contest while forcing two fumbles as well.

On the season, Van Noy has a total of 12 tackles with 2.5 sacks for New England in 2019. Van Noy, who was drafted by the Detroit Lions with the 40th overall pick in the 2014 NFL Draft, has been playing well as of late in New England and took another step in the right direction in Week 4.

Dud: Patriots defense

Although the story so far this season has surrounded New England’s offense and its ability to take over a game at any point in a contest, the Patriots’ defense has been stellar through the first few weeks of the regular season as well.

Entering the game now allowing an opposing offense to record a touchdown through three weeks of the year, New England’s defense wasn’t nearly as impressive on Sunday afternoon in the win over Buffalo on the road.

The Patriots allowed the Bills offense to go off for 280 yards through the air, while allowing the fellow AFC East opponent to recored 135 additional yards on the ground within the run game. New England did also allow its first touchdown on defense all season. The Patriots defense did enough on Sunday to ultimately come away with the win over the Bills, but their defense wasn’t as dominant as we have been used to seeing.