Bills vs. Jets: Bills Turnover Machine in High Output Mode, Team Drafts Third
The Buffalo Bills closed out their regular season by taking one on the chin against the New York Jets, 38-7. For the Bills, their losing season comes to a merciful conclusion at 4-12. Due to Week 17 results, the Bills are winding up with the third overall draft pick.
For the New York Jets, they were able to rest many of their key players, have a few laughs, end their recent losing streak and gain a little bit of momentum for the playoffs. We classify this as only a little bit of momentum because, after all, the Jets faced Brian Brohm and Levi Brown today. Enough said.
The Bills turned the ball seven times last week against the Patriots. Six more turnovers today makes it an unlucky 13 for the final two games. Whatever good feelings Chan Gailey had about the Bills offense, those are now all gone. The Bills haven't scored more than 17 points in any of their final six games, which is one more disturbing sign that the offense still has lots of work to do and is not out of the woods.
Ryan FItzpatrick Knee Wasn't Ready, but Neither Was Brian Brohm
1 of 12
Ryan Fitzpatrick hurt his knee in the New England game last week, and wasn't able to make any practices this past week. Brian Brohm was able to practice with the first team all week, but when it came time for the game, it looked like he had never taken a snap before.
There was something eerily similar about Brohm, maybe it was from watching Trent Edwards play for the past three years, but Brohm seemed unable to comprehend that it would be a good idea to release the pass before you are hit. Brohm seemed to have the timing down just right that however far away a Jets defender was from hitting him, he would hold the ball just long enough to insure that he would be hit just as he released the pass.
The end result was a series of comical passes that went up straight in to the air, and of course the Jets were always Johnny-on-the-spot, coming up with four interceptions on the day. Brohm displayed very little mobility, didn't use any pump fakes to get defenders to leave their feet, and was unable to find any avenue to escape the rush, which was often.
To give you an idea, at one stage late in the first half, the following stats were flashed on the screen: Brohm, 8 hurried passes, 4 times knocked down, 3 batted balls at line of scrimmage and one sack. Ugh. Welcome to the NFL. I realize Brohm had one start last year, but it actually looked like he had regressed from that start. He was that bad. His QB passer rating? Wait for it...17.9
Jets Rested Most of Their Key Players
2 of 12
Jets head coach Rex Ryan decided that he wanted to rest some key players, since he wanted them to be fresh for the first round of the playoffs next week. So, Ryan declared the following players as inactive: Darrelle Revis, Antonio Cromartie, Shonn Greene, LaDainian Tomlinson, Eric Smith, James Ihedigbo and Damien Woody.
Tomlinson needed less than 100 yards to reach 1,000 for the season, but Ryan felt it was more important for L.T. to be healthy going in to the playoffs than to go after the personal goal.
Mark Sanchez had a very brief appearance. He showed up only for the first Jets series, and that consisted of running plays only. The rest of the game, Sanchez sat on the bench and laughed at the outcome.
Joe McKnight Goes Crazy on Bills Weak Run Defense
3 of 12
Joe McKnight, the Jets rookie running back out of USC, had not been able to show much this season. With the Jets declaring that they were declaring their two leading rushers as inactive, McKnight was suddenly the guy. The fact that he was facing the worst run defense in the NFL was probably music to his ears.
McKnight took advantage of the matchup, as he flew all around the field, rushing 32 times for 138 yards. He shredded the Bills all game. The Jets, as a team, kept the peddle to the metal, as they poured it on with 50 rush attempts for the game, rushing for 276 yards. That total was the most the Bills allowed this year and just served as further reinforcement how badly the Bills defense needs help against the run game.
The Jets averaged 5.5 yards per carry. "The Terminator," John Conner, only needed 8 carries for 44 yards, and Brad Smith ran for 60 yards in just 5 carries. The Bills couldn't stop any facet of the Jets run game, as the Jets came up with a season high rush total.
The 50 rushes for the Jets were the most a Bills team had faced since 1993, when the Steelers rushed 50 times in a game. Thanks to Chris Brown of BuffaloBills.com for coming up with that little gem.
.jpg?w=256 "Colts Jaguars Football")
Brian Brohm Was Unable to Decipher the Jets Blitz Packages
4 of 12
Whenever the Jets saw that the Bills lined up with an empty backfield and five receivers split out wide, they would automatically bring six guys to the line to blitz Brohm. What Brohm had to realize was that he would not have his normal amount of time to go through his reads, but would instead have to release the ball quickly to his hot read.
Brohm never quite mastered this technique, as he was constantly too slow to let go of the ball. Of his three interceptions, one was returned for a touchdown by Marquice Cole. In the picture, Brohm tries to tackle him at the goal line, but he failed in that as well.
Brohm's contract is up at the end of the year. He was here all year to observe all the things that Ryan Fitzpatrick does to keep drives alive and avoid the rush. He attended all the meetings, sat there all year watching the same tape of game reviews. The way he played today showed that he must have been asleep in almost every meeting. I would not be surprised if he is not invited back next year, as he has probably played his way off of the roster, based on today's disaster.
Levi Brown Makes His NFL Debut
5 of 12
After Brohm had already thrown three interceptions, Chan Gailey had seen enough. He pulled Brohm and gave rookie quarterback Levi Brown his first taste of life as a NFL quarterback. Brown came in with over six minutes left in the game, and looked fine completing his first two NFL passes to Steve Johnson and to Paul Hubbard.
After those two completions, Brown got a little ahead of himself and tried to throw a long ball to Steve Johnson. They wound up not being on the same page, and with Johnson running a much different route than where Brown wound up throwing the ball, the Jets were handed their fourth interception of the day. They must have been giddy about the day, as the Jets came in last in the NFL in interceptions for the season.
Despite the interception, Brown showed off a rifle arm. Based on the limited exposure, compared to the painful exposure of watching Brohm, you would have to think that Levi Brown stands a better chance of coming back to being a backup next year to Ryan Fitzpatrick.
Steve Johnson Is Bills Leading Receiver but Has Key Early Fumble
6 of 12
Before the game got out of hand, the Bills were on a nice drive, when they hit Steve Johnson on a long play. Johnson was running down to the Jets 10 yard line, when he was hit from the blind side, and coughed up the ball. The Jets recovered the ensuing fumble, and the Bills offense never got that close to the end zone again.
For the day, Johnson was the Bills leading receiver with 5 catches for 72 yards. But Chan Gailey gave Johnson a piece of his mind after the fumble, and reminded him that he can not become great if he keeps making mistakes like that.
Johnson is exciting to watch, but these costly turnovers are part of the fundamental mistakes that the young Bills have to learn to overcome. This is part of the maturation process, but with all of the excitement, comes some pretty painful lessons along the way.
13 turnovers over the final two games should be sufficient for some sleepless nights for the players during the off-season, and for the coaching staff as well.
Jairus Byrd Nabs First Interception of the Season
7 of 12
After his rookie season ended in 2009 by coming up with an astonishing nine interceptions, Jairus Byrd was shut out with zero picks over the span of the first 15 games. That would be the definition of a sophomore slump if you happen to be a safety in the NFL.
Byrd chose the final game of the year to break that streak, when he stepped in front of a Mark Brunell pass and returned the interception 37 yards for a touchdown. If it wasn't for the play by Byrd, there is a very good chance that the Bills would have been shut out. Now that would have been ever more humiliating.
Byrd has stepped up his level of play this season to that of a more physical player. He has leveled some people with strong hits, and has been responsible for causing some fumbles. But he has been mysteriously far away from getting his hands on passes. He either isn't reacting fast enough, or is still not completely over his surgery that happened just before the pre-season games began.
The picture is one of two touchdowns that the Jets beat Byrd on with passes for easy scores. One was to Braylon Edwards, while Santonio Holmes came up with the other. In both cases, Byrd was not quick enough to get over to help out on the play, which has been the case far too often this season.
The Jets Kept the Bills Offense Bottled Up All Day Long
8 of 12
The Bills constantly had their backs to the wall, literally, Consider that the Bills had 13 separate possessions for the game, and they only started one drive past their own 30 yard line. That was just before the half, and they only had the ball for one play at that.
The Bills started drives today from their own 10, 19, 13, 11 and 3 yard line. They had five different drives that went three and out. The final three possessions all ended in interceptions for the Jets.
The Jets held the ball for 11 more minutes, ran 19 more plays, and outgained the Bills 388 to 162. The Jets converted half of their third down opportunities (8 of 16), while the Bills went 4-12. The game was really not close in any aspect.
Bills Defenders Are Busy All Day
9 of 12
Here is a picture of Kyle Williams trying to get to backup QB Mark Brunell without his helmet. The Bills came up with one sack for the day, as Spencer Johnson managed to get to Brunell.
The Jets had three sacks of their own.
The Bills had a busy day making tackles, as they were led by Akin Ayodele (13), Paul Posluszny (12), Chris Kelsay (9) and Spencer Johnson (8).
A number of Bills saw action today that don't often play. Aaron Maybin saw some time, as did Paul Hubbard. Chan Gailey and Buddy Nix will be reviewing the tape to see who showed up and who mailed this game in. The results may be somewhat disturbing to both of them.
So What Happens from Here?
10 of 12
As the season is now over, the Bills will be going through the process of cleaning out their lockers and conducting exit interviews over the next several days.
Some of the Bills that have played the final game of their existing contract are hoping to be back next year, like Paul Posluszny. Some Bills will have just played their final game wearing the red, white and blue jerseys. We won't know who is gone yet, but news will start filtering down as the weeks unfold.
The Bills will now be doing heavy film review to determine who they want to keep and who they want to release. They will be coming up with a wish list of various pending free agents that are looking for a new deal. They will also be getting ready to step up their scouting efforts as the best college players prepare to enter the various all-star games, leading to the combines in Indianapolis.
One sad development was that Fred Jackson was not able to hit the 1,000 yard mark today. The Bills tried to run the ball, but Jackson was only able to come up with 35 yards in 13 carries, far short of the 108 he needed to reach 1,000.
Buffalo Bills in 2011: Schedule of Opponents Has Been Announced
11 of 12
Although, none of the dates of these games are available yet, the Bills already know who their opponents are going to be in 2011, once more thanking Chris Brown, of Buffalo Bills.com for the scoop on this.
Home Games: Denver, Oakland, Philadelphia, Washington, Cincinnati, Miami, New York Jets, and New England.
Away Games: Kansas City, San Diego, Dallas, New York Giants, Tennessee, Miami, New York Jets and New England.
So besides their traditional AFC East foes, the Bills also face off against the AFC West in addition to the NFC East, where they can hopefully extract some revenge against all of their old Super Bowl nemeses.
On the surface, it seems like another tough schedule, just as this year was. The Bills don't seem to have many easy road games once again, so they will just have to raise the level of their play to become a winning team.
The Silver Lining: The Bills Are Awarded the Third Overall Pick
12 of 12
Based on who won the final contests in Week 17, the Bills strength of schedule was bypassed by Cincinnati today. Since the Bills, Bengals and Broncos all lost today (call them the Killer B's), the final order has now been determined for the first four draft picks.
1) Carolina Panthers.
2) Denver Broncos
3) Buffalo Bills
4) Cincinnati Bengals.
So there you go, Bills fans. A silver lining today. I couldn't leave you with so many negative thoughts without some good news, or something to look forward to.
That third pick can wind up being almost anything at this point. It could be an offensive star, a defensive stud, a quarterback, or it could be a pick that Buddy Nix decides to trade down if he is overwhelmed with an offer that he can't refuse.
Memo to Buddy Nix: Just don't run the pick up to the podium this year in the first minute you are on the clock. Take a few phone calls and listen before you act.
There are too many things that happen from now until the draft, but based on the final contest, I would not be surprised to see the Bills use the draft to try to shore up their defense, especially against the run.
We will continue to look into the draft and analyze the Bills' needs going forward, so even though the season is done, continue to check back for further articles about the Bills team needs. Thank you to our loyal readers for following us all season on The Bleacher Report and for all of your comments.
.jpg?w=480 "Colts Jaguars Football")
.png?w=480)
.jpg?w=600 "Post-June 1 Trade Candidates ☎️")
.JPG?w=600 "TO Talks Cowboys Relationship")
.jpg?w=600 "Taylor Heinicke Retiring")
.jpg?w=600 "49ers OC Hypes Mike Evans 🤩")