The Buffalo Bills went into their match up with the New York Jets in the Meadowlands with a great opportunity to improve to 6-2. However, they came up short in a big way, getting outplayed on both sides of the ball. Here we look at the top three reasons for their loss and drop to 5-3 on the year.
1. Line of scrimmage play on both sides of the ball: The Bills offensive and defensive lines were absolutely blasted in this game. They both played by far their worst games of the year. The offensive line gave Tyrod Taylor very little time to throw and allowed 5 sacks in the first half alone to a Jets defensive line who came into the game having only 1 sack and 11 sacks total as a defense. They were just as bad in the run game allowing Shady McCoy only 25 yards on 12 carries. The defensive line was just as bad allowing the Jets to gash them on the ground to the tune of 194 yards with Matt Forte and Bilal Powell gaining 77 and 74 yards respectively. The Bills came into the league ranked #10 in Defense-adjusted Value Over Average (DVOA) after two weeks earlier ranking #2. They are sure to drop even more now. In their second game since the Marcell Dareus trade, the run defense looked lost.
2. OC Rico: The play calling was troubling in this game went away from some of the previous years concepts that the Bills had been using more of. Instead, Tyrod Taylor was sitting back in the pocket and running more pocket passer plays which is not his forte. Vlad Ducasse had played very well in his first two games as starter but really showed his limitations in this game. The Bills are at their best offense of late when they run zone read concepts and man blocking in the run game. For some reason they decided to go away from that this game.
3. Team letdown: Maybe it was a trap game for the bills but they did not come out with the same energy that they showed in there prior to games. If they thought that the Jets we’re going to roll over they were wrong. From the start the body language on the players was not impressive. As a result, they got pushed off the ball on both sides and played their worst game of the season.
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