ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Micah Hyde sat in deep center field as Mac Jones took the snap on a first-and-10 with a little more than five minutes remaining in the first quarter. The Patriots were trying to answer a Josh Allen touchdown drive so peppered with hammering runs and balletic, improbable passes that the stadium was already a deafening cacophony of ’80s metal riffs and hollering fans in industrial ski gear, sipping homemade liquid courage from Aquafina water bottles turned cocktail shakers.
Jones was doing his best Tom Brady impression on the play, pump-faking a quick-release strike to a receiver dragging over the middle, which seemed to isolate Hyde in the middle of the field.