Bills Central

Bills maintain AFC East lead with 23-20 win over Jets in primetime slop fest

The Buffalo Bills moved to 4-2 in an ugly Monday Night Football win over the New York Jets.

David Faux

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The Buffalo Bills' Week 6 Monday Night Football clash with the New York Jets has finally, mercifully, ended -- but don’t worry, another flag has been thrown while writing this recap.

The Bills ultimately won in what can only be described as a disgusting, gross, frustrating, ugly, egregious, and ultimately bad game. The Jets were not good. The Bills were not good. The referees made sure both teams were on the receiving end of their insistence on inserting themselves into almost every play they could. All under the bright lights of primetime, where Joe Buck and Troy Aikman continued to one-up themselves with head-scratching comments.

Now that all the non-football stuff has been said, let’s actually talk about football. That is, technically, what happened Monday night in New Jersey. We’ll look at the most inspired performance, a performance that needs more inquiries, the player or position that requires a better performance, and the most irksome part of the game (that isn’t about officiating).

Inspire - Ray Davis and Taylor Rapp:

Ray Davis
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Rookie running back Ray Davis was stellar in the victory, shining when tasked with shouldering the workload given James Cook's absence. Ty Johnson may have had the start, but Davis ran hard and smart, following his blocks and bringing a level of physicality that was needed against a tough Jets defense. He finished the night with 20 carries for 97 yards and three catches for 55 yards, but the highlight was clearly a miracle 42-yard catch in the second quarter on a deep Josh Allen scramble throw. It was a big moment, and while he did juggle it for a bit, he managed to trap the ball and get the Bills out of a jam backed up near their own endzone. It was a very encouraging performance from the fourth-round rookie and one that hopefully he can build his rookie season on.

Taylor Rapp, a player that many Bills fans were down on coming into this year, played his best game in a Bills uniform, and it’s not even close. Rapp made multiple huge stops in this game, from tackling Breece Hall short of a touchdown early in the game, to several big, legal, collisions that created incompletions in critical spots. Rapp was fully locked in and ready for this Jets team.

Related: 4 takeaways from Bills penalty-laden 23-20 win over Jets

Inquire - When does the pass game come together?

Mack Hollins
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The passing game was certainly better this week than in the last two weeks, as the Bills managed to get Dalton Kincaid, Curtis Samuel, and others involved pretty well. It still ended up being only okay from the receiving group overall, however. A step forward is a step forward though, and particularly against a tough Jets defensive backfield that challenged the Bills’ receivers all night. But at some point, if they want to challenge teams late in the season and in the playoffs, they need to continue to take steps forward, and with their schedule over the next few weeks looking relatively easy, now is the time to build that chemistry and figure out what needs to change moving forward.

Require - A new kicker and special teams coach:

Tyler Bass
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It’s unfortunate, but it’s time for the Bills to move on from Tyler Bass. His multiple misses Monday were brutal; even the tipped kick early on was on Bass, who didn’t have a good trajectory kicking the ball, leading to that tip. Bass was once a very good kicker, one of the best in the league, but it’s been too many games and too many misses for Bass now. It’s a tough financial pill to swallow, incurring around $7 million in dead cap (per Over The Cap), but it's a move that needs to be done before he actually costs the Bills a game later in this season. On top of that, Buffalo should have seriously considered moving on from special teams coordinator Matthew Smiley in the offseason and should still be considering doing so now. This unit simply isn’t prepared and ready week in and week out, and it’s been a problem since last year. It’s disappointing that Sean McDermott hasn’t done anything to address the problem in 2024. 

Irk - Knock the ball down and Hail Mary discourse:

New York Jets
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There was an *astonishing* amount of discourse around what the Bills should or should not have done regarding the Jets’ Hail Mary touchdown at the end of the first half. Many teams have different approaches to a Hail Mary, particularly with how many rushers to send. Some believe in always blitzing the passer to speed up the timing. Some simply believe in a three-or-four-man rush to keep things regular. Some want as many in coverage as possible to handle potentially weird bounces of the ball. But there’s one singular coaching point that is emphasized above all else: KNOCK. THE. BALL. DOWN.

This particular writer is of the mindset that sending more rushers is generally the right call, particularly against an older quarterback who can’t move as well as he used to. At the end of the day, that part doesn’t matter, because the defensive backs simply didn’t do their job by knocking the ball down. They went for the pick, allowing Allen Lazard to make a great play on the ball in the end zone. Fans, writers, analysts, etc. can all try to make this about McDermott or defensive coordinator Bobby Babich, but that only works if you think the players are doing exactly what they’re being told 100% of the time. Which, statistically speaking, doesn’t happen! It’s a frustrating situation, one that Bills fans are tired of watching, but at the end of the day, it’s not a problem that McDermott can handle short of simply putting on a pair of pads and knocking down the ball himself. 

Related: Studs and duds from Bills' 23-20 primetime win over Jets

What’s next for the Buffalo Bills?

Josh Allen
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The Buffalo Bills will play next Sunday at 1:00 p.m. against the Tennessee Titans in Buffalo. With Will Levis looking like a weekly meme generator every time he takes the field and the Titans defense trying their best, this seems like a great week for the Bills to refocus, figure out what they need to fix, and go do it. While certainly not an easy out, the Titans in Buffalo should not be a game that the Bills drop, and hopefully the Bills use this opportunity to further extend their lead in the AFC East. 

Timeout.

Another flag has been thrown at the end of this recap.

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David Faux
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