Revisiting five Buffalo Bills to watch at the New York Jets

The Buffalo Bills needed a big win, and they delivered with an absolute thrashing of the New York Jets, traveling to New Jersey and beating their divisional foes 45-17. After a tight first half that saw the Bills extend their lead to 17-3 with just under a minute before halftime, the Bills rattled off three straight touchdowns in the third quarter to turn the game into a laugher.

Buffalo’s big players showed up in a big way on Sunday, allowing the Bills to leap back up to the No. 2 seed in the AFC. Here’s how our players to watch performed on Sunday.

QB Josh Allen

That’s more like it. Allen was surgical on Sunday, firing the ball all over the field with precision, velocity, and confidence. He threw it just 28 times, but he still managed 366 yards passing—good for 13.1 yards per attempt. That’s an absurd number, and Allen also managed to complete 21 passes, so not only was he airing it out all day, but he was doing so with deadly accuracy. Officially, Allen only ran twice for three yards, but that doesn’t include a 17-yard run on Buffalo’s third drive that was called back on a penalty. Allen had two touchdown passes and an interception on a nice defensive play by the Jets. Great players pad their numbers against inferior opponents, and Allen did exactly that on Sunday.

RB Devin Singletary

Singletary was Buffalo’s lead back on Sunday in terms of both carries (7) and rushing yards (43), and even though he was one of four Buffalo players to rush for a touchdown, he wasn’t the high scorer at his positional group. That honor went to Matt Breida, who caught a 15-yard touchdown pass to open the scoring and then ran for a 15-yard touchdown in the third quarter. Singletary was the middle-man in terms of snaps among running backs, as he appeared on just 22 offensive snaps on the day, more than Breida (8) and fewer than Zack Moss (30). The running game isn’t the focal point of the Bills’ offense, but it was nice to see the team run it when they wanted on Sunday.

TE Dawson Knox

In his return from a broken bone in his hand, Knox showed no ill effects of the injury. He played more snaps than Tommy Sweeney by a wide margin, as Knox appeared on 84 percent of the team’s snaps on offense, playing a total of 49. However, Knox didn’t have much impact in the passing game, as he was only targeted once, converting that into a 17-yard reception. That’s not to say that he wasn’t important, as his presence as a blocker was certainly felt. However, he’ll have to wait another week to add to his team-leading five touchdown grabs.

The Whole Offensive Line

Spencer Brown is a man. That guy came in and started moving people around. Daryl Williams looked right at home at right guard, and Ike Boettger more than held his own against a Jets front that boasts a premier player in Quinnen Williams. Josh Allen took two sacks and was hit five times, but for the most part, he had all day to throw. The team averaged 5.8 yards per rush, and that includes Davis Webb’s two kneel-downs at the end of the game. If the line can continue to gel a little, the Bills have the potential to be scary-good.

LB Matt Milano

This is another section where we’re talking about our guy, but we really need to spotlight his teammate, too. Milano played a great game without his normal running mate, Tremaine Edmunds, who missed the game with a hamstring issue. Milano finished with nine tackles, second behind only Jordan Poyer in the game. One of those tackles went for a loss, and Milano also broke up a pass on the afternoon. However, it was his teammate, A.J. Klein, who made some flashy plays in relief of Edmunds. Playing a season-high 68 defensive snaps, Klein made seven tackles, two of which went for a loss, and he also broke up a pass. Both linebackers were bright spots in another fantastic defensive effort.