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ORCHARD PARK -- If you just saw the score and didn't actually watch the New York Jets' 42-36 win over the Buffalo Bills on Sunday, you'd probably figure it was a very competitive game. Maybe even an exciting shootout.
Wrong and wrong.
New York turned the first two of Buffalo's five turnovers into a 14-0 lead with 11:13 still to play in the first quarter. Another giveaway, blended with the Bills' season-long aversion to tackling running backs before they reach the secondary, made it 28-9 with 5:49 left in the first half.
After New York turned to the prevent defense perhaps earlier than any team in NFL history, the Bills did close the gap to six points early in the third quarter. But they moved the ball 1 yard, backwards, on their next two series. Then they reverted to fumbling and it was 42-22.
From that point, the Jets played like they were hurrying to catch the latest war updates on CNN. After rampaging for 329 yards in the first three quarters, they jogged for a total of 6 in the fourth quarter. And their soft zone got downright cushy, yielding as many dump-offs as Alex Van Pelt could throw.
Buffalo made the final score more cosmetic than a Mary Kay convention with two touchdowns in the final 4:12. The Bills' final garbage points came on Van Pelt's 6-yard flip to Larry Centers, capping an excruciating 19-play, 84-yard possession. That drive (to use the word very, very loosely) featured four dropped passes, two underthrows, no discernible New York pass rush and a whole lot of defensive backs playing extremely deep.
As those National Football League ads say, feel the power.
The Bills did their best to maintain the deception that this was anything more than their fourth one-sided whupping in as many games.
"If we don't shoot ourselves in the foot there early, and then later on they have a fumble return for a touchdown, obviously we're in that game and winning," said Van Pelt "I think that was definitely a game we could have and should have won."
Yeah, and if I was a foot taller, I could have and should have had a great NBA career.
"These guys competed and they fought clear to the end," said Bills coach Gregg Williams.
That's definitely an improvement over Buffalo's first two home losses, when the defense watched Ricky Williams of New Orleans and Chris Fuamatu-Ma'afala prance unimpeded into the end zone in the fourth quarter. But those kind of statements lead to an obvious question -- what's the alternative? Clearing the sideline and showering at the end of the third quarter?
Rationalizations aside, the Bills displayed enough flaws Sunday to prove themselves capable of losing to any team in the NFL, even one as crashingly mediocre and merciful as the Jets:
Granted, Martin's one of the league's most consistent backs. But he was hardly breaking new ground. After yielding 93 yards to Williams in the opener, Buffalo has surrendered three 100-yard days in a row. At times during Sunday's first half, the Bills didn't look like they could have stopped Ricky Martin.
"Right now, we haven't proven that we can stop any back," said Buffalo defensive end Bryce Fisher. "As a defense, we need to make some decisions and do some things to stop running backs from running the ball downhill on us."
Late in the third quarter, a drunk wearing a blue No. 7 jersey ran onto the field, making it to the red Bills helmet at the 50-yard line before being greeted by five security guards.
Suffice to say the guys in highlighter-yellow jackets put at least as many hits on the Flutiephile as Buffalo put on Martin. They certainly landed more than the Bills' pass rush did on Vinny Testaverde, who finished 15-of-25 for 173 yards and two scores while sustaining nary a bruise.
During the brief period in the third quarter when the game was within reach and the Jets reverted to their normal front, Henry got just two carries for 7 yards.
Not that the Bills did much else during that stretch. On their two possessions with the Jets up by six points, Buffalo managed a single first down, and that came on an iffy roughing-the-passer penalty.
Van Pelt also benefited from New York's defensive benevolence, putting up a puffy 23 completions in 41 attempts for 268 yards and three scores, with one interception.
"At the end, I thought we could have just checked the ball down to the backs and the tight end underneath all day," said Van Pelt, who came on after New York linebacker Mo Lewis kayoed a sliding Rob Johnson with a forearm smash late in the first quarter. "They were going to give us that."
Buffalo got flagged for that infraction on three kick returns in the third quarter, leading to drives starting at its own 8-, 15- and 17-yard lines.
Thanks to the approaching bye week, the Bills get four extra days to prepare for its Thursday-night visit to Jacksonville on Oct. 18.
They certainly have enough to work on.