There’s getting beaten, and then there’s getting crushed by one of the worst offenses in the NFL.
The Jets chose to suffer the latter on Sunday.
LeSean McCoy rushed for his first two touchdowns of the season, but the other culprits in the Bills’ 41-10 win at MetLife Stadium were by no means household names.
There was Matt Barkley, the newly signed quarterback making his first start in nearly two years, who threw for 232 yards and two touchdowns. There was Robert Foster, an undrafted free agent just promoted from the practice squad, who became the Bills’ first 100-yard receiver this season with three catches for 105 yards. There was Zay Jones, another receiver who recorded career-highs of eight catches and 93 yards.
There was even the Bills’ 6-foot-5, 320-pound left tackle, Dion Dawkins, who slipped behind the defense for a 7-yard touchdown catch.
“I was very shocked,” linebacker Avery Williamson said. “It’s pretty mind-blowing for our defense to give up that many points. I feel bad because I feel like I’m one of the leaders on this defense and me being a part of it is definitely embarrassing. Just gotta look at the film and see where it went wrong.”
It went wrong from the very beginning, when it took the Bills only two plays to go 75 yards for a touchdown just 49 seconds into the game.
The Bills’ 31 first-half points were more than they had scored in any game all season and nearly as many as they had scored in their previous four games combined (33).
“Once they started jumping on us, they didn’t let up and we didn’t get back into the game,” defensive end Leonard Williams said.
The Jets didn’t make life tough on Barkley, either. They didn’t sack him until Jordan Jenkins and Jamal Adams got to him early in the fourth quarter. By that time, the game was well out of reach.
And while the Bills didn’t announce until Saturday that the fourth-string Barkley would be their quarterback, it didn’t change the game plan, according to linebacker Darron Lee.
“They didn’t do a damn thing different,” Lee said.McCoy said he was also “shocked” the way the Bills moved the ball on the ground. Their 212 rushing yards were the most the Jets have given up this season.
“We weren’t in our gaps,” coach Todd Bowles said.
Before Sunday, the Jets defense had played well enough to keep them in games the last two weeks. Against the Bills, it hardly gave them a chance.
“It hurts your pride when you give up that many points to a team,” Williamson said. “From the start, they came out swinging. It’s definitely painful. Tough one to swallow.”