Records for James Cook and Josh Allen, lock up the 2-seed, and keep Aaron Rodgers out of the end zone. Check. Check. Check.
The assignment was clear, even if the skies weren’t. The Buffalo Bills needed to beat the New York Jets to go unbeaten in Orchard Park for the first time since 1990 and secure the AFC’s second seed in this season’s NFL Playoffs.
The Bills understood the assignment and wanted to get right to work so, when Taron Johnson, who was playing in his 100th career game, linebacker “Buffalo Joe” Andreessen, somewhat of a hometown here, and wide receiver Amari Cooper walked out to midfield won the toss, Buffalo flipped the script and elected to receive sending Josh Allen and the offense out to start the game on a very rain-soaked field at Highmark Stadium.
The Bills first drive was full of starts, stops, backups, and flags. Allen’s first pass was incomplete, but then James Cook ran for five and Khalil Shakir hauled in a Josh Allen pass at the 48. With a new set of downs, running back Ray Davis snatched an Allen pass and went for 8 yards before fumbling the ball out of bounds. The Bills got an extra five yards on the game’s first flag – an illegal use of hands on the Jets’ defense. Then the flags just kept flying. Ty Johnson went for 8 yards, but Conner McGovern was called for a personal foul, and it was second and seventeen. Allen’s next pass was incomplete, but the third flag of the game gave them a new set of downs when New York was called for another illegal use of hands. After a couple of runs had the Bills needing five yards on a third down and Allen hit rookie Keon Coleman all the way down at the 5-yard line. But a holding call on Spencer Brown brought it back for 2nd and 14. Allen and Mack Hollins connected for 23 yards and another new set of downs. After Dalton Kincaid took the ball to the six-yard line and Allen missed Coleman in the end zone, Sauce Gardner was called for pass interference, and the Bills had the ball for a first and goal at the one-yard line. Josh Allen’s line cleared room, and he plowed into the end zone for the 65th rushing touchdown of his career tying him with Hall of Famer Thurman Thomas and giving the Bills the lead.
Bills 7, Jets 0
It looked as though the Buffalo defense maybe didn’t get the memo about the assignment due today. Aaron Rodgers and the Jets moved the ball pretty steadily for one second shy of six minutes. But on a fourth and one at the Buffalo 24, Greg Rousseau stuffed Braelon Allen and gave the ball back to Allen and the offense.
However, the Bills weren’t able to much with the ball the second time around. A 10-yard run, two 9-yard passes and a 4-yard pass were sprinkled around a two-yard loss and some penalties. Faced with a fourth and 12 at their own 39, Sam Martin was called in to do his part in the group project. And do his part he did. Martin’s 47-yard punt had Rodgers’s offense starting at their own 14-yard line.
Once again, the Buffalo defense looked like the kid who is just there to get the grade and won’t actually participate in the group project. The Jets were chewing up field in big chunks – a 17-yard run, a 28-yard pass to name a couple. But then, someone must have told them they had to actually contribute. With a second and eight at the Bills 12, Greg Rousseau tipped an Aaron Rodgers pass and Jordan Phillips was there for it. It was the second interception of Phillips’ career and the second trip into the red zone for the Jets without a score.
Five and a half minutes of play time later, however, and Allen’s offense were looking like the ones not pulling their weight on the assignment. When the drive stalled at the New York 44, it was Sam Martin to the rescue once again. This time, Martin’s kick was only 39 yards, but that’s all it took to pin the Jets on their five-yard line.
Then the flags came back. A false start penalty moved the ball back to the two-yard line for a first and 12. A loss of a yard on a run by Braelon Allen put Rodgers in danger when needing 13 yards on the next down. The danger became a reality when A.J. Epenesa took Rodgers down in the end zone for the safety.
Bills 9, Jets 0
The Bills took the ensuing kickoff and started working toward another score before the end of the half. But for all the forward movement they made, there were penalties moving them back. They got enough momentum to get into field goal range so that kicker Tyler Bass could tack on another three as the first half clock expired.
Bills 12, Jets 0
The Jets opened the second half and tried to close the gap on the scoreboard, but other than one 22-yard pass by Rodgers, they really couldn’t do anything to damaging. An attempt to get the Bills’ defense to bite on a fourth-and-five failed and they called on their punter, Thomas Morstead who did his job and pinned the Bills at their one-yard line which is where Allen would have to begin his first drive of the second half.
Allen couldn’t get anything going, but a couple of James Cook runs at least kept Allen from standing in his own end zone. However, Keon Coleman slipped on the wet turf and couldn’t get to Allen’s third down pass, and it was Sam Martin time again. Martin hit a 51-yard punt, but when you’re standing in the back of your own end zone that 51 doesn’t mean a whole lot, and the Jets’ next drive was starting at the Buffalo 45.
Once again, it looked like Rodgers was going to organize a drive that would put some points on the board. He started by catching the Bills in a blitz and hitting Garrett Wilson in the open flat for 13 yards. But then Breece Hall couldn’t get past the line of scrimmage on the next play when Ed Oliver ran him down. A false start made it second and fifteen and then Greg Rousseau gave Aaron Rodgers the privilege of being the most sacked quarterback in NFL history – an honor he took from Tom Brady. Faced with a third and nineteen, Rodgers launched a pass that ended in cornerback Christian Benford’s hands. To add more insult to Rodgers, the quarterback was flagged for a personal foul when he shoved Benford as the cornerback ran out of bounds with the football.
With the defense doing more than their share of the work in today’s assignment, Josh Allen decided it was time to have the offense carry some of the load. The quarterback led a 5-play drive that ended in a 30-yard touchdown pass to Amari Cooper who caught the high-thrown ball while leaping backwards. Two plays before, Cooper had passed the 10,000 mark for most career yards.
Bills 19, Jets 0
After a drive that netted a negative four yards for the Jets, the Bills started their next drive on their own 37. But it only took Allen a minute and a half to get them back to a first and goal. Then, rather than score on yet another Schnowplow, Allen handed the ball to James Cook who scored his fifteenth rushing touchdown of the season. The touchdown tied Cook with Allen for second on the Bills’ list of players with most rushing touchdowns in a season.
Bills 26, Jets 0
Aaron Rodgers only got the ball for one play on the next drive. The New York quarterback threw a pass behind the line of scrimmage to Garrett Wilson. But Ed Oliver stripped the ball out of Wilson’s hands and linebacker Matt Milano got his second fumble recovery of the season. Milano ran the ball to the end zone but replay eventually decided he and Rodgers had collided and he was down by contact.
Milano may have not gotten into the end zone, but an insane pass from Allen to Coleman who jumped over two players to snag an intentionally thrown jump-ball pass put those points back on the board.
Bills 33, Jets 0
Another 57 seconds and four negative yards was what came next for Rodgers and the Jets. During that time, the clock ticked over to the fourth quarter, signaling that there were just 15 minutes left for the Bills to complete their assignment. But apparently, head coach Sean McDermott decided that Allen had done enough, and it was time for Mitch Trubisky to contribute on the day’s project.
And contribute he did. After two runs lost two yards each, Trubisky threw a short pass Tyrel Shavers who had been called up from the practice squad due to Curtis Samuel being inactive with a rib injury. Shavers took the pass and ran. And ran. He ran 69-yards to become the thirteenth Buffalo Bill to catch a touchdown pass this season.
Bills 40, Jets 0
And with that, Aaron Rodgers day was also done. It was a familiar name who came in for the Jets eighth drive of the day – former Buffalo quarterback Tyrod Taylor. Taylor had more success than Rodgers, but he also was playing against the Bills’ backups. On a 13-play drive that took 5 minutes and 38 seconds, Taylor found Garrett Wilson who beat Brandon Codrington (whose sole role is usually to return kicks and punts but who was playing as a defensive back in the “garbage time” minutes of the game) in the end zone. Wanting just a little more, the Jets left Taylor on the field and he Tyler Conklin for the two-point conversion.
Bills 40, Jets 8
With one tick less than seven minutes left in the game, Ty Johnson took the kickoff 45 yards to set Trubisky up at the 49-yard line for his second drive of the day. But it wasn’t as dramatic a drive as his first. After four runs – two each by Ray Davis and Reggie Gilliam – the Bills gave the ball back to Tyrod Taylor and the Jets when they came up a yard short of the ten needed.
Taylor used 8 plays to go 58 yards in 2 minutes and 49 seconds to hit Conklin for another touchdown. However, when trying to get an extra two points, Taylor was chased around before having to throw the ball into the stands.
Bills 40, Jets 14
Trubisky, who ended the game 1 pass, 1 completion, 1 touchdown, came in to take a knee and let the clock expire.
Assignment complete. The Buffalo Bills are the AFC’s two-seed. Josh Allen has five straight seasons with 40 or more touchdowns. James Cook has the second-most rushing TDs in team history. Amari Cooper has over 10,000 yards. The Buffalo Bills are undefeated at home for the first time since 1990 and they have scored more points than any other season in team history. Not bad for a team that was told they were on a reset year.