The New York Jets had a 16-0 lead over the Buffalo Bills in the third quarter of Sunday’s season opener. While it wasn’t a pretty performance offensively, they had done enough to that point, scoring eight points off Buffalo turnovers. The problem, of course, is that the Bills had turned the ball over four times to that point and, by failing to score touchdowns, they allowed the Bills to hang in a game where they could have been buried.
All throughout the afternoon, there were plenty of Jets to watch, and our list ended up performing well—for the most part. While our list of Bills’ players to watch included the team’s kicker, we apparently should have done the same for the Jets, as Kaare Vedvik ended up the difference in the game thanks to a missed 45-yard field goal and a missed extra point.
Here is a recap of how our five players to watch fared in the game.
QB Sam Darnold
While many paid attention to Bills quarterback Josh Allen and his four first-half turnovers, little was said about Darnold, who struggled for most of the afternoon. With Tre’Davious White and Levi Wallace shutting down the Jets’ outside receivers (Quincy Enunwa and Robby Anderson combined for four catches and 19 yards on ten targets), Darnold was forced to check down early and often. He completed 14 passes to Jamison Crowder for a total of 99 yards, he hit running back Le’Veon Bell six times for 32 yards, and he found tight end Ryan Griffin three times for ten yards. Overall, Darnold’s completion percentage looked great (28/41; 68.3%), but his paltry 4.3 yards per attempt average and 175 yards total was not enough. Darnold also took four sacks on the day for a total of 20 yards, as he was under constant duress from a relentless Bills pass rush.
RB Le’Veon Bell
Bell looked every bit the elusive runner that we came to know in his time with the Pittsburgh Steelers, as there were several times where he made multiple Bills defenders miss while squeaking out tough yardage. In his first game action in 603 days (a fact that the CBS crew reminded of us quite consistently in the early portion of the game), Bell touched the ball 23 times and gained 92 yards. He ran it 17 times for 60 yards, a 3.5 yards-per-carry average, and he caught the aforementioned six passes for 32 yards. He also made a great catch on a two-point conversion where it appeared that Bills safety/nickel corner Siran Neal either gave up on the ball or lost it in the ozone layer. Bell was certainly the biggest name among all the running backs on Sunday (though Bills veteran Frank Gore would certainly like a word), but on a per-touch basis, he wasn’t the most dynamic, as rookie Devin Singletary parlayed nine touches into 98 yards in his Buffalo debut.
C Ryan Kalil
Kalil looked fine in his Jets’ debut, and he didn’t have an easy assignment. Lining up across from him all day was a wide array of players, from Star Lotulelei to Ed Oliver to Lorenzo Alexander to Tremaine Edmunds. The Bills showed a lot of strange fronts and wide looks along the line, and they were able to harass Darnold all afternoon as a result. Perhaps some of the blame could fall on Kalil for setting protections that ultimately didn’t work, but the Bills’ talent in their front-seven is also far greater than the Jets’ talent on the offensive line. There were no horrendous snaps and Kalil didn’t spend half his day on his rear-end, so he acquitted himself fairly well in his first action.
LB Jordan Jenkins
The big outside linebacker came up with a big play on Buffalo’s first drive, as he absolutely rag-dolled left tackle Dion Dawkins en route to a strip-sack of Josh Allen, which the Jets recovered. Jenkins had a good day overall, as he combined for three tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss, that one sack and forced fumble, and a quarterback hit. While it appeared that Dawkins regrouped and played better in the latter stages of the game, Jenkins was able to make his presence known.
CB Trumaine Johnson
The CBS crew noted Johnson’s poor play in 2018, and they also noted the hamstring injury that has limited him thus far in 2019. Rich Gannon suggested that the Bills needed to keep attacking him, and they certainly did throughout the day. While he wasn’t the corner John Brown beat for the go-ahead touchdown (that was Daryl Roberts), Johnson was attacked all afternoon. He led the Jets in tackles with eight on the day.