ORCHARD PARK - This is not breaking news to anyone who is a fan of the Buffalo Bills, but man, it is a chore to be a fan of this team given all they put you through.

Sunday afternoon, in a game that felt like they should have won by about 30 points, especially when New England kept turning the ball over in the first quarter, the Bills once again played way, way down to the competition and turned what should have been a pretty easy day into a nail-grinding three-plus hours before they finally secured a 27-21 victory over the 4-12 Patriots.

“Good to get a win, it’s never easy,” coach Sean McDermott said. “I was proud of how the guys pushed through and were resilient. It was back and forth and I thought they came together and put together a good back quarter there of the game with complementary football. But it’s never easy to win in this league.”

Sign up for the Bills Blast newsletter Delivered straight to your inbox, additional Bills analysis, insight, stats, quotes and team history from Sal Maiorana

Yes, the Bills have made that perfectly clear this season as they once again played down to the level of the opponent and were fortunate to avoid what would have been a crushing defeat.

Josh Allen suffered through a wildly ineffective day, one of his worst of the season, but in the end, he did just enough to beat a Patriots team that gave him fits in both games this season.

Meanwhile down in Baltimore, the Ravens smoked the Dolphins 56-19 which means Buffalo will go to Miami next weekend with a chance to win the AFC East, something that seemed highly improbable when they were sputtering along at 6-6 just after Thanksgiving.

“You couldn’t ask for any better situation, to have the opportunity to go down there and beat Miami and win the division,” said special teamer Tyler Matakevich. “I’m pretty sure people probably didn’t think that was possible. We’ve never lost hope, we just kind of kept coming in day in and day out working and grinding.”

There was so much to complain about, so much to be concerned about on this final day of 2023, but the 10-6 Bills have won four in a row and rather incredibly have a chance to earn the No. 2 seed in the AFC which would mean a minimum of two postseason games at Highmark Stadium.

Here’s how I graded the Bills:

PASS OFFENSE: D

It would be hard to conjure up a worst first half for Allen than the one he played in this game. I mean, it was absurd how bad he - and really, to be fair, the entire Bills offense - was in the first 30 minutes. At the half he was 7 of 20 for 46 yards and yet another ill-advised deep throw into double coverage that was picked off by Alex Austin, a player the Bills drafted in the seventh round in April and later cut.

Allen was hurt by four dropped passes, but he was his own worst enemy on other throws that were just poorly executed and he admitted so afterward. And it also didn’t help that when the Bills targets weren’t dropping passes, they weren’t getting open. It was flat out bizarre how bad it all was.

It really didn’t get much better in the second half, but Allen did direct a critical opening possession to start the third quarter, the big play a 51-yard completion to Dalton Kincaid that keyed a 75-yard TD drive. He finished 15 of 30 for 169 yards with an interception. And he made two big throws on the final possession that allowed the Bills to run out the clock.

What remains a concern, though, is another quiet day from Stefon Diggs who had just four catches for 26 yards.

Josh Allen shoulder injury: Will Bills quarterback be ready for showdown against Dolphins?

RUN OFFENSE: C

The Bills knew it was going to be difficult to run against the Patriots defense which began the day ranked No. 1 in the NFL in yards allowed per carry and No. 2 in rushing yards allowed. However, they were able to make some headway as James Cook had space on some plays, and Allen was his usual man on a mission with the ball in his hands and he rushed for two more TDs, giving him 15 for the season.

The Bills finished with 127 yards but only a 3.4 average. Cook managed 48 yards on 16 carries and Allen had 44 on 11 attempts with two QB sneak TDs. Latavius Murray’s failure on a key third-and-1 in the fourth quarter gave the Patriots a possession with a chance to take the lead, but in the end it did not come to fruition.

PASS DEFENSE: A

Rasul Douglas has turned out to be perhaps the best midseason addition of Brandon Beane’s career as the Bills GM. He had a first quarter to remember as he deflected a Bailey Zappe pass that was intercepted by Ed Oliver, and then made two interceptions, the second of which he returned 40 yards for a touchdown early in the second quarter to give the Bills a 20-7 lead.

Christian Benford also forced and recovered a fumble after TE Pharoah Brown caught a pass. But thereafter, Zappe settled in a bit and he actually played better than Allen as he completed 16 of 26 passes for 209 yards. However, as has been the case all season, New England’s weapons simply aren’t dangerous and the Bills were able to manage the game with their defense.

Sean McDermott was hellbent on pressuring Zappe, and it was pretty disappointing that he couldn’t get that accomplished without blitzing against a Patriots offensive line that was missing three starters. And while Terrel Bernard had two sacks, too many of the blitzes failed to create any havoc and the Patriots were able to make some key plays.

RUN DEFENSE: B+

The Patriots played without top RB Rhamondre Stevenson and had to rely on Ezekiel Elliott and the former Cowboys star is a shell of the player he once was. He did score the TD that cut the Buffalo lead to 27-21, but he finished with 39 yards on 14 carries.

Kevin Harris certainly provided a spark though his big play came on a 48-yard catch and run with a pass. Zappe’s mobility was a problem and he got loose for a couple big plays including a 17-yard TD run when the Bills sent a blitz, completely whiffed, and he had nothing but open field to the end zone.

The Patriots ran for 103 yards and 4.3 per attempt. Bernard and Jordan Poyer had big games with 10 tackles apiece.

SPECIAL TEAMS: C

The game could not have started any worse. Literally, there was no way it could have started worse. Tyler Bass did not kick the ball through the end zone on the opening kickoff, probably on orders but maybe not. Anyway, Jalen Reagor returned it 98 yards for a touchdown, running right through the first wave of defenders before running right over Bass on the way to the end zone.

Later in the first half, Ty Johnson decided to run a kickoff from two yards deep and made it out to only the 18, so a loss of seven yards of field position. And in the fourth quarter, Reggie Gilliam held on a kickoff that forced a drive start at the 14 right after the Patriots pulled within 27-21.

There was some good, though. Bass made both his field goals and all three extra points, Siran Neal made a couple nice plays to down Sam Martin punts inside the 5, and oh, yes, Martin. He’s had a pretty inconsistent season but he has saved his best for the end. He had a great game as all six of his punts were downed inside the 20 and his net average was 47.8.

COACHING: B-

Whatever Joe Brady was doing in the first half, take that game plan and light a fire with it. What a disaster it was as virtually nothing worked and Allen was lost. Yes, the Patriots have a good defense, but there was no excuse for the operation to be so lackluster.

And it’s not like it got a whole lot better in the second half. At the start of the fourth quarter the Bills had two cracks at second-and-2 and third-and-1 and two runs by Cook and Latavius Murray went nowhere. He did scheme up the nice drive in the third quarter and a nice one to end the game, but the offense has some problems to figure out.

Defensively, the Bills were fine. They held the Patriots to 294 yards, 16 first downs and 5.5 yards per play and that was good enough against Zappe and company. Next week in Miami will be a far greater test.

Sal Maiorana can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana and on Threads @salmaiorana1. To subscribe to Sal's newsletter, Bills Blast, which comes out twice a week during the season, please follow this link: https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Bills report card: Buffalo escapes Patriots, has chance to win AFC East