The Bills won the second of their two regular-season matchups 40-14 Sunday, bringing the Jets a game closer to landing in their offseason.
The Buffalo defense returned to form following a three-game stretch in which they allowed 1,357 yards, 86 first downs, and 107 points.
“I thought coach (Bobby) Babich and the defensive staff did a great job during the week,” Bills HC Sean McDermott said to the media. “Players played extremely fast, physical. And then when you play physical and you play fast, the ball tends to come out and to find you.”
The Bills held Aaron Rodgers to 112 passing yards. They caused two interceptions by corner Christian Benford and defensive tackle Jordan Phillips, as well as a safety by defensive end Greg Rousseau.
“That was awesome,” Bills QB Josh Allen said about the defensive effort. “Playing on short fields, it makes the game a lot easier, I’ll tell you that. Our defense, man, they played lights out today. They had juice, they had energy.”
Defensive tackle Ed Oliver added three tackles, three for a loss, and a sack, and forced a Rodgers fumble that linebacker Matt Milano recovered. Defensive end A.J. Epenesa added four tackles, two for a loss, and a sack that led to a safety. And outside linebacker Von Miller had a sack, two tackles, and a tackle for a loss.
“Yeah, it was dope just for us to go out there and reap the benefits of our hard work, the work that we put in week after week,” said Rousseau who blew up a play for a turnover-on-downs and tipped a pass for the Jordan Phillips interception on another. “To have one of these games, it was great.”
The Bills built a 40-0 lead, shutting out the Jets for the first 53 minutes of the game until the 6:59 mark of the 4th quarter when former Bills QB-turned Jets backup Tyrod Taylor scored twice in relief of Aaron Rodgers.
“I wouldn’t say need … and I don’t want to say reassurance, either,” explained Epenesa about the type of game the defense had. “But it just shows that this is what we can do and this is the standard that needs to be upheld.”
For the Bills to have a chance at winning in the three rounds of the playoffs to make it to and compete in the Super Bowl, their defense will need to keep this type of performance going as just that type of standard game-to-game.
“Sometimes you just need that win to kind of refresh your mind on who you really are,” Oliver said. “Everybody had fun [and] everybody got a piece of the action.”
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