Bills escape Meadowlands in mistake-filled win over Jets: ‘a lot to clean up’

EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ – The Buffalo Bills won. Yippee.

They beat the New York Jets and while there are some circumstances to make the Bills happy with a 23-20 win at the Meadowlands, the Jets are awful and fired their head coach a week ago and probably should to have won on Monday night.

The game was a dog’s breakfast.

The Bills put in an Alpo-grade performance, but did their best to suffer their third straight loss with uncharacteristic lapses in discipline and situational awareness. They gave up an inexcusable Hail Mary touchdown late in the first half. They committed an unacceptable number of penalties. Tyler Bass missed more kicks.

Jets kicker Greg Zuerlein had a pair of field goal attempts from the left in the final 16 minutes. Bass finally made one, just barely, from 22 yards out with 3:43 to play.

Bills coach Sean McDermott called the win “huge.” Much of the night could be described with another rhyming word.

“A lot to clean up,” McDermott said, “and a short week to do it.”

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Lindy Ruff, the head coach of owner Terry Pegula’s other team, said on Saturday that he won for the first time since returning to the Buffalo Sabers that the moment was more “like a stress reliever” than reason of celebration The Sabers desperately needed a win, and so did the Bills, trying to avoid their first three-game losing streak in six years.

Bills quarterback Josh Allen has yet to lose three straight as a starter. After last week’s disastrous showing against the Houston Texans in which he completed nine of 30 throws, he went 19 of 25 for 215 yards and two touchdowns. Rookie tailback Ray Davis, filling in for injured Pro Bowler James Cook, helped overcome the struggles with 97 rushing yards and 152 rushing yards, game-highs for any Buffalo player this year.

But one bounces the other way and Fireman Ed struts around the station today in good spirits.

For example, wide receiver Mike Williams was wide open but fell to the MetLife Stadium turf at Buffalo’s 18-yard line, allowing nickelback Taron Johnson to intercept Aaron Rodgers to seal the game with 1:52 left. to play Zuerlein might have missed a third field goal, but you could almost hear the Bills sideline exhaling in Orchard Park.

“It’s easy to review tape when you’re winning,” Bills cornerback Rasul Douglas said. “When you lose, that’s when it’s hard.”

The Hail Mary touchdown at the end of the first half was a crushing blow that brought the Jets within three points. (Elsa/Getty Images)

For the third week in a row, the defense gave up an absurdly long touchdown.

With 8 seconds left in halftime and the Jets at the Bills’ 48-yard line, McDermott and defensive coordinator Bobby Babich decided to attack Rodgers with just two defenders and protect the sidelines to prevent the Jets from going out of bounds for Zuerlein could attempt a field goal on the last play.

Rodgers threw an arching spiral into the middle of the end zone, where wide receiver Allen Lazard jumped between Bills safeties Taylor Rapp and Damar Hamlin and Johnson for the 52-yard touchdown to pull the Jets within three points.

“At the end of the day, they executed better than we did,” McDermott said, declining to elaborate on his strategy. “We have to go back and re-examine, making sure we have the right number of running backs for that situation as well as the right number of coverage guys.

The Bills didn’t give up a single touchdown of 50+ yards last year, but have given up one in each of the last three games. Derrick Henry sprinted 87 yards on the Ravens’ first snap, followed last week by Texans wide receiver Nico Collins injuring his hamstring on CJ Stroud’s 67-yard touchdown run in the first quarter. At least Rodgers waited a bit to exploit Buffalo’s deference.

A couple of years ago, I coined the phrase “derble derp” to describe the reverse intention of winning the coin toss and deferral. A double down is when the team runs the clock and scores on the last possession before halftime, then receives the second half kickoff and scores again.

So instead of scoring on back-to-back plays, Buffalo allowed another embarrassing touchdown and Bass missed another field goal, this one from 47 yards with 11:06 left in the third quarter. He has now converted just two of his five attempts between 40 and 49 yards. Bass also missed an extra point in the second quarter after the Bills drove 90 yards in 10 plays, culminating with Allen’s 8-yard touchdown to Mack Hollins.

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No NFL game this year had more penalty yards, with referee Adrian Hill’s crew calling 22 that were accepted for 204 yards. Both numbers were the most in a Bills game since 2018. The Bills rushed 11 times for 94 yards, the Jets 11 times for 110 yards. A further six penalties were awarded, while two were disallowed. That makes 30 flags.

“I’m not one to blame the refs,” Bills right tackle Spencer Brown said, “but when they start interfering with the play and the calls can go either way, it heats up that side and then it comes back and heats up the other side side.

“It’s like we’re a bunch of wasps in a jar. We’re kind of quiet, doing our own thing, but once you start shaking the pot, we all get pretty angry.”

McDermott tallied six penalties against Buffalo before the snap or after the whistle. Brown was called for unnecessary roughness on a third-and-6 in the third quarter, making up for a defensive pass interference call that would have moved the Bills down about 30 yards on a tied game. Instead, they made a point.

“These are not negotiable,” McDermott said. “We don’t tolerate that stuff. We’ve got to do a better job in that category, for sure.”

Bills left tackle Dion Dawkins enjoyed the win in his locker, wearing sunglasses and a green jacket he made sure to tell reporters he was wearing to taunt the Jets a little more. The Rahway, NJ native has been bad-mouthing the Jets for months and was handed a costly penalty for taunting defensive tackle Quinnen Williams between the third and fourth quarters. The unsportsmanlike conduct put the Bills in a third-and-21 situation from their own 11-yard line and led to a punt.

But as Douglas pointed out, mistakes are less stressful to digest when you’re winning.

Instead of sitting on a three-game losing streak and falling to second place behind the Jets in the AFC East standings (imagine that), the Bills remain undefeated in the division and can rationalize that they learned Monday night more than they knew for five games.

“Our No. 1 goal is to make the playoffs, and you do that by winning your division,” Allen said. “So we understand the gravity of this type of game. We’re 4-2 with a two-and-a-half game lead with the head-to-head win, instead of being 3-3 and being second.

“In the grand scheme of things, though, it was next, and that’s why it was the most important.”

(Top photo: Lucas Boland / Imagn Images)