Bills defense is ferocious against Jets as Buffalo clinches No. 2 seed in playoffs
ORCHARD PARK - There have been plenty of grumblings about the Buffalo Bills defense in recent weeks, and they have all been for good reason.
Yes, injuries were wreaking havoc in the secondary, and the Bills did run into a couple of teams in the Rams and Lions who can be electric on offense when they get rolling, and boy, did they ever get rolling against Buffalo to the tune of a combined 86 points.
Even last week, the lowly Patriots - undeniably one of the worst offensive teams in the league - scored three TDs against Buffalo and threw a scare into the Bills in a game that was much closer than anyone would have imagined.
But Sunday, it was as if the Bills saved all their biggest defensive moments for the New York Jets, play after play after play, all of which led to a smashing 40-14 victory that allowed Buffalo to clinch the No. 2 seed in the AFC playoffs and will also give coach Sean McDermott the opportunity in Week 18 to sit out some of his key players, including Josh Allen, for most or all of the game in New England.
“Yeah, it was dope just for us to go out there and reap the benefits of our hard work, the work that we put in week after week,” said edge rusher Greg Rousseau who was a wrecking ball in every way. “To have one of these games, it was great.”
If for nothing else, it’s a much-needed confidence boost for a unit that had been worked over lately, but is finally starting to get healthier just in time for January.
“I thought coach (Bobby) Babich and the defensive staff did a great job during the week,” McDermott said. “Players played extremely fast, physical. And then when you play physical and you play fast, the ball tends to come out and to find you.”
The Bills sacked Aaron Rodgers four times, once for a safety by A.J. Epenesa, and they picked him off twice while holding him to 112 harmless passing yards.
“It was good to see our defense ballin’,” said nickel corner Taron Johnson. “We were hitting on all cylinders. We keep up that, we can do something special. I felt like Bobby did a good job switching up the calls, helping us give him different looks. I think us as a back seven did a good job disguising, and because we disguised, we made him blink a little bit and gave our rush an opportunity to get back there.”
There was much of the same bending that we saw in those last few games on New York’s first two offensive possessions. However, thanks to a pair of huge plays by Rousseau, the Bills managed to get off the field without allowing points after Rodgers had moved his team downfield without much resistance.
The first drive ended at the Bills 24 when Rodgers threw an incomplete pass on third-and-1 which seemed like a way-too-cute play, and then the aging QB watched as Rousseau blew up Braelon Allen on a rush up the middle for no gain and a turnover on downs.
The second drive was humming right along, too, as the Jets were set up with a second-and-2 at the Buffalo 12, but Rousseau struck again. He got his hands up on a Rodgers pass and tipped it high into the air and the ball fell safely into the arms of defensive tackle Jordan Phillips.
For Phillips, it was his first interception since 2016 when he played for the Dolphins in a game against the Jets. And for the Bills, counting the two interceptions by DT Austin Johnson earlier this season, that makes three for the defensive tackles, the most that position group has had for any NFL team since the Dolphins had three in 2011.
The Jets lost a minimum of six points and a maximum of 14, and it felt like those two failures sucked whatever life they had right out of them and the game went into a dark, dark spiral for Gang Green because it got even worse thereafter.
The Bills started well on offense, driving 70 yards to an Allen one-yard TD plunge, though three Jets penalties that gave them automatic first downs certainly helped. From there, it was a struggle on offense the rest of the first half as Allen was under pressure far more than he’s been all year, narrowly avoiding at least three sacks thanks to his athleticism.
After the Phillips interception, the Bills wound up punting for a second time and this one was a beauty by Sam Martin, downed at the 5, and that led to the third huge play by the defense. On a second down from the 2, AJ Epenesa blew past right tackle Max Mitchell - who was in for injured Morgan Moses - and he sacked Rodgers for a safety, the first for the Bills since Thanksgiving 2022 in Detroit.
“Yeah, we showed a look where we had more people showing blitz than they had to block it,” Epenesa said. “They brought in the tight end, he was on the end of the line of scrimmage. They gapped down with the O-line, the tight end released and they just let me go free. Sometimes when that happens, you think it's too good to be true.”
The Bills took possession at their 32 following the free kick and drove 47 yards to Tyler Bass’ 39-yard field goal and a 12-0 halftime lead.
If the Jets had any chance of staying alive, they needed to score early in the third. Instead, they had fourth-and-5 at the Bills 37, the offense stayed on the field, and Rodgers inexplicably took a delay of game which forced the Jets to punt.
Game over as the Bills proceeded to score four touchdowns in the span of about 13 minutes bridging the third and fourth quarters to push the score to 40-0.
Christian Benford’s interception stopped a Jets drive and Allen turned around and threw a gorgeous 30-yard TD to Amari Cooper to make it 19-0. Following a 25-yard punt return by Brandon Codrington, the Bills needed only five plays before James Cook scored on a one-yard run.
Moments later, Ed Oliver forced a Rodgers fumble which Matt Milano recovered at the Jets 15 and three plays, Allen just winged one into the end zone, a jump ball essentially, and naturally Keon Coleman made the catch with three Jets in the area.
That made it 33-0 and ended Allen’s day, and for good measure, Mitch Trubisky’s first pass of the day, on a third-and-14, turned into a 69-yard Tyrell Shavers TD. He had been elevated from the practice squad and this was Shavers’ first NFL reception. It was that kind of day for the Bills.
“Playing on short fields, it makes the game a lot easier, I'll tell you that,” Allen said. “Our defense, man, they played lights out today. They had juice, they had energy. And then offensively, I thought we ran the ball well, and a couple really, really big plays, especially there in the third quarter.”
Allen became the first player in NFL history to total at least 40 touchdowns in five consecutive seasons, and that explosion also pushed Buffalo’s point total to 509 for the season, a new franchise record. And what’s neat about that is it happened in the 16th game, under which the old mark of 501 was established in 2020.
Ultimately, with Rodgers on the bench, ex-Bill Tyrod Taylor ruined Buffalo’s shutout bid with a nine-yard TD pass to Garrett Wilson with 6:59 remaining and then tacked another garbage TD with 1:55 remaining.
Sal Maiorana has covered the Buffalo Bills for four decades including 35 years as the full-time beat writer for the D&C, and he has written numerous books about the history of the team. He can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com, and you can follow him on X @salmaiorana and on Bluesky @salmaiorana.bsky.social. Sign up for his Bills Blast newsletter here: https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast