FOXBORO — The Patriots’ loss at Buffalo last weekend turned dark on a backwards lateral the Bills recovered for a touchdown in the fourth quarter that pushed them into a 24-14 lead.

The play suffered from multiple breakdowns, including a Drake Maye pass that should have been forward, a drop by running back Rhamondre Stevenson and a missed cut block from right tackle Demontrey Jacobs. Asked Thursday about his play-call, which resulted in another backwards lateral earlier this season at Tennessee, offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt called it “a very safe play.”

“It’s a kick-it-out play with a lead blocker,” he explained.

Van Pelt came under fire shortly after the game for his play-call, which led to the Patriots’ third turnover of the day and the eventual game-winning touchdown. He went into detail about the play Thursday.

“That was a difficult one,” Van Pelt said. “We really had three errors on the play and they were all critical. To not have one of those, we may have survived the down. We were a little fast throwing the lateral. We were expecting that to be a forward pass. We ask our guys to cut the (defensive) end to that side. We didn’t get his hands down, that’s number two. And then our back … we lost a little ground on the wide route.”