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'We're a resilient team' | Bills sit atop the AFC East after divisional win

Oct 15, 2024 at 08:12 AM

Dorian Alerte

Contributing Correspondent

The Buffalo Bills are back in the win column after a 23-20 victory in a battle with their division rival New York Jets. With the win, the Bills improve to 4-2 and 2-0 in the AFC East and stand in first place in their division.

"A good division win on the road," head coach Sean McDermott said. "Last three games in a row on the road, thought it was a gritty win led by Josh. Offense got off to a good start, established the line of scrimmage, really in the game."

After two tough road losses the Bills bounced and battled back, despite not having RB James Cook in the lineup who was dealing with a toe injury. In his place, rookie RB Ray Davis carried the load, leading the offense in rushing and receiving yards. McDermott said that he "really stepped up."

"It wasn't a shock to me," RT Spencer Brown said. "He does everything right always… I think he's wise beyond his years. He has a lot of poise. His confidence is incredible. He's humble as well. So, I mean, I'm super happy for the guy."

The Bills came out the gate wanting to display their physicality in the trenches, and on their first touchdown drive of the game they only threw the ball once. For the remaining eight plays, they ran the ball and Davis had just under 50 yards on the first drive alone, including runs of 14 and 15 yards and RB Ty Johnson had a 12-yard to start things off.

"That was something we really wanted to do," Davis said. "We stressed all week, was about going out there and taking the physicality to them."

The offense remained balanced throughout the game as they ran the ball 33 times and passed it 25 times and contributed to the team's success in the end.

"We have to run the football just as well as we have to pass and with running and passing, that's what we got to do to play football," LT Dion Dawkins said. "So even with Cook out, it was a statement that no matter who's up, we can do it."

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Both offenses battled back and forth in the first half, making big play after big play. On the Bills third drive of the game, Davis made a remarkable play after QB Josh Allen broke out of the pocket to his right and threw a dart to Davis for 42 yards.

"Yeah, you know, I got out," Allen said. "I saw a flag being thrown for defensive holding and, you know, just felt like I had a free play there and just gave him a shot, and he made a play for us… Our biggest play of the game right there was just our guys out efforting them and it was good to see."

After the first half was littered with points and big plays, including a hail mary touchdown pass from Jets QB Aaron Rodgers to WR Allen Lazard as time expired in the first half, the second half saw only three points scored by each team.

The Bills defense made several key goal line stands in the third quarter that kept the Jets from putting points on the board.

"We're a resilient team," S Taylor Rapp said. "We're gonna always fight to the end. And it's just a testament of the DNA of these guys in the locker room, coaching staff, all the guys in the locker room we're resilient."

Rapp was all over the field. He racked up eight total tackles and forced an incomplete pass intended for WR Garrett Wilson that led to a missed field goal which proved important to the end result of the game.

"Played out his mind," CB Taron Johnson said. "Made some huge plays, some huge hits."

At the end of the game, with an opportunity to score, Rodgers attempted a deep shot intended for WR Mike Williams, but Johnson saved the day and came away with the game clinching interception with 1:52 left to go in the game.

"That's great," Allen said. "He's the best nickel in the game and that's a heck of a play and we missed him and I'm glad to have him back on the field doing this thing because he's such a great defensive weapon for us and we feel like you can guard anybody and again he just continues to make big plays."

Johnson said that the call on the defense was made by LB Terrel Bernard when the Jets were lined up and that they were rushing the call.

"TB kind of made a call kind of spur the moment," Johnson said. "They were already lined up and we weren't lined up yet so we was rushing it, and as soon as he was rushing it, I'm just like, 'Okay, I gotta get back to my job in that specific call.' So just making sure that I got my depth and focused on the quarterback and made a play."

With time still left on the clock and the Jets with their timeouts, the Bills offense had to find a way to run out the clock. After Davis received the first two handoffs of their final drive and the Jets burned their first two timeouts, Allen called his own number, running for six yards, securing the first down and ending the game.

"Really just, I mean, when Josh in the groove, he's in the groove," DT DaQuan Jones said. "I was happy he managed the game how he did and closed it out. And of course, for Taron to come back and make that play I mean it's huge for him huge for a team and I'm happy to see him back."

Whether they win or lose, the Bills mindset remains the same. Although they were very happy with the win, the consistent message after the game was "we have a lot to learn from."

"Like I talked about last week, finding ways to win those tight games, and we got it done," Jones said. "Obviously, there's a lot of penalties in that last quarter that we gotta, we gotta clean up. We can't do that. We gotta be smarter. But I think we got the win we needed."