EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Grading the Buffalo Bills in their 30-10 victory over the New York Jets on Sunday at MetLife Stadium.
Running game: A+
It started with a bang, as Josh Allen’s 40-yard scramble was the third longest of his career in the regular season and his longest since Week 15 of the 2022 season, a 44-yarder against Miami. From there, James Cook took over, piling up 132 yards on 21 carries and scoring two touchdowns. Remember all that talk about Cook being expendable as he campaigned for a new contract this offseason? Yeah, not so much. No. 2 running back Ray Davis gained just 24 yards on nine carries, while Ty Johnson had 6 yards on two carries. Cook is far and away the best running back on Buffalo’s roster, and showed why Sunday.
Passing game: C-
Allen was penalized for intentional grounding twice, which doesn’t happen very often. The offensive line struggled at times to give Allen enough time to throw. “They just have a good front,” right tackle Spencer Brown said. “Every time you play the Jets, you know it’s going to have to be a protect-the-quarterback kind of game. … It took us a little bit there to get that under control and get used to what they were doing and get our hips under us.” Dawson Knox had a tough game, finishing with just two catches on five targets for 19 yards. Knox had at least one drop – maybe two depending on your grading scale.
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Run defense: B+
Tackles for loss were the name of the game for the Buffalo run defense. Matt Milano started the party with one of those for a 3-yard loss by Jets running back Breece Hall on New York’s second play from scrimmage. The Jets got a little bit going on the ground on their third possession, but then Christian Benford dropped receiver Arian Smith on a botched reverse for a loss of 10 yards. Tre White also had a tackle for loss. The Jets did get 49 yards on the ground from quarterback Justin Fields, but the Bills will take that total. “Stop the run,” nickel cornerback Cam Lewis said of the defensive focus. “We struggled with that last week against the Ravens, so this week, we just wanted to stop the run first and then let our game play off of that, and I feel like we did that.”
Pass defense: A
Fields could do absolutely nothing through the air, finishing 3 of 11 for just 27 yards. Old friend Tyrod Taylor went 7 of 11 for 56 yards and a garbage-time touchdown after Fields left with a concussion. The Bills sacked Fields three times, with Joey Bosa and DaQuan Jones bringing him down. Zion Logue and Greg Rousseau shared the other sack. Cole Bishop also had a sack of Taylor. The Bills defended three passes – one each from Logue, Rousseau and Dorian Williams. The Bills limited the Jets to 154 yards of offense, the fewest on the road in a game since 1990 by a Buffalo defense. The Jets did not convert a single third down. The Bills have only done that twice since 1991, with the other time also being against the Jets in the 2023 season.
Special teams: A-
Matt Prater, the ageless wonder, kicked a 52-yard field goal and remains perfect with the Bills through two games. The operation with long snapper Reid Ferguson and new punter Cameron Johnston, who is also the holder, looked smooth. Johnston punted three times, averaging 39.7 net yards. More importantly, he placed two of those three punts inside the Jets’ 20-yard line. The star on special teams was safety Sam Franklin. He made a pair of tackles and looks like quite a find by general manager Brandon Beane as a coverage ace. The one negative was returner Brandon Codrington had a bit of a quiet game, as his four punt returns gained just 22 yards. At least a couple of times, it looked like Codrington might have been better off taking a fair catch instead of risking getting hit and possibly fumbling.
Coaching: B
There were a couple of hiccups for the offense. A run on second-and-10 and a run on third-and-4 directly into the line of scrimmage were very easy to second-guess on the part of offensive coordinator Joe Brady, assuming it was him who made those calls. There are always going to be calls like that in a game, but the assumption here is that Brady and head coach Sean McDermott won’t be particularly pleased with the effort despite scoring 30 points. The good news is the defense turned it around in a big way, even without defensive tackle Ed Oliver and slot cornerback Taron Johnson. It’s a good bet that unit was challenged by McDermott and defensive coordinator Bobby Babich in Week 1, and it came through. The next challenge for the coaching staff will be getting the team ready for a short week with Miami coming to town in Week 3.
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Jay Skurski
News Sports Reporter
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