The Buffalo Bills came into their Week 4 matchup with the New England Patriots riding high as one of the last three undefeated teams in the AFC and had a real chance to put a stranglehold on the AFC East while knocking last year's division winner out for good. However, the Bills leave this game reeling as the Patriots walk away with the 29-26 victory, and Buffalo heads toward next Monday with more questions than answers.

Who is responsible for the Bills' ugly loss on Sunday? Well, there is plenty of blame to go around, and like many NFL teams a month in, the injuries are starting to pile up. That said, these four specific people need to take the most responsibility for the Bills' Week 4 loss to the Patriots.

Josh Allen

The Bills wouldn't have even been in the Week 4 game against the Patriots if not for Josh Allen, but heavy is the head that wears the crown. As much credit as Allen gets when things go well, you have to assign him an equal amount of blame when they don't, and the superstar QB often makes it easy for critics to do that in losses.

Allen was 23-of-33 for 253 yards passing with a touchdown and an interception. He also added four yards rushing on five carries and a TD on a goalline sneak. Those aren't bad numbers by any means, but his game-ending interception with a chance to go for the win was a killer, and he got away with a few unconcionable throws as well that could have lost the Bills the game even earlier.

The Buffalo signal-caller needs to make better decisions down the stretch and take what the defense gives him more, but it's hard to tell a player who produces so much magic to stop trying to be magical all the time. So, while Allen gets plenty of blame here, his defense, head coach, and even the front office are failing him right now.

Maxwell Hairston

Maxwell Hairston is the perfect example of a player that Brandon Beane drafted too high and who was, in fairness, a better fit in Sean McDermott's system. The former Kentucky cornerback is not a physical man-to-man corner that new defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard wants. He is a soft, speedy, ball-hawking CB that would have fit well under McDermott if he could have stayed healthy under his previous coach.

“Soft” is not a term to throw around lightly, but how else can you describe Hairston after what happened on and off the field on Sunday?

First, he made a business decision late in the game that directly contributed to the Bills' Week 4 loss to the Patriots. Needing a first down to ice the game, Patriots tight end Hunter Henry caught the ball about six yards short of the sticks and rumbled for the markers. Hairston takes a bad angle and then also pulls up at the end instead of trying to make a fit that could have forced a fourth down.

Max Hairston (1) what kind of effort is this?#BillsMafia pic.twitter.com/dtdSQThCzq

— Buffalo Sports Talk (@BUFSportsTalk) October 4, 2026

The video speaks for itself, which is one reason it is fair to call Hairston soft. The other is that he refused to talk to the media after the game, leaving the locker room without taking questions. This is not the type of culture you want to see develop on or off the field with a new head coach.

Joe Brady

After the Bills fired Sean McDermott at the end of last season, the organization should have been looking for two things. They needed a coach who was going to hold Allen accountable and an offensive guru who could scheme up some creative plays to make life easier for the star QB when things aren't going well.

Owner Terry Pegula and general manager Brandon Beane whiffed on both these accounts.

By elevating the then-current offensive coordinator Joe Brady to head coach, the “braintrust” that runs the Bills simply ensured more of the same results, just in (very) slightly different packaging. Brady is smily Allen's buddy, and there seems to be no accountability at all. You can see that in the fact that a week after making bad decisions and almost throwing away the Week 3 Los Angeles Chargers game, Allen played almost the same way and gave away the Bills' Week 4 tilt with the Patriots.

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And as far as offensive scheme-ery and creativity, Brady is simply reverting to the same old predictable patterns he displayed as an OC, including the dreaded 3rd-and-long bubble screen game (IYKYK).

Center Connor McGovern went on Buffalo's WRG the morning after the game and explained how the screen passes continue to happen in big spots, a fact that Bills Mafia called out by booing the team off the field after the last one of the Bills-Patriots game.

The lineman explained that when there are more potential blitzers in the box than the line can block, Allen will check to a quick bubble screen to get the ball out vertically. The Patriots seemed to know this, and watching the video below, it looks like they baited the Bills' offense into it in a big spot.

This type of predictability was a hallmark of the Brady era as OC and seems to continue as head coach.

Brandon Beane

The 2026 season is yet another in the Brandon Beane Era where the Bills do not have one of the best rosters in the NFL. And while the general manager likes to complain that it's impossible to have a top-notch roster when you are paying your quarterback huge money and don't get top-five draft picks, teams like the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles beg to differ.

Outside of letting the left guard go and plugging in the backup to fill the hole, the only real move Beane made on the offensive side of the ball was trading for D.J. Moore. With Moore once again exiting the game with an injury, this is now the exact same offense that hasn't been able to get the job done over the past two seasons.

On the defensive side of the ball, it's a lot of the same thing. Beane has spent a lot of mid-round draft capital on defenders, but few are ready to play big minutes and contribute now. That leaves starters like Terrel Bernard and backups like Damar Hamlin forced into crucial roles, and Bills Mafia all know what happens when those two play big minutes in big spots.

All this adds up to the fact that Buffalo cannot win games through any other avenue than Josh Allen putting on his cape and playing Superman, and when that happens, good and bad outcomes come in equal measure.

For a fanbase that endured four-straight Super Bowl losses, a Groudhog Day feeling to the season is nothing new. But what makes this so hard to swallow is that the owner told the fans that all the struggles in the past few years were due to Sean McDermott, and Beane deserved a promotion. That's just simply not true, and keeping Beane may be the single biggest thing to blame if the Bills don't at least make the Super Bowl this season.