After losing to the Dolphins last week despite not allowing a touchdown to the Miami offense, Jets head coach Todd Bowles said that he thought his team’s defense could have done more to help win the game.
That was a surprising response given how they played, but no one will be surprised if the defense comes up for blame again this Sunday. The Jets are down 31-3 at halftime against a 2-7 Bills team that had not scored more than 27 points in any of their games this season.
Of course, losing like this to a team like the Bills may lead the Jets to decide that someone other than Bowles should be putting together their game plans. Assuming they can’t channel one-time Jets and Bills quarterback Frank Reich and come back to win this game, Bowles will be 23-35 as the Jets’ head coach and the team will be 3-7 on the season.
LeSean McCoy has scored his first two touchdowns of the season for Buffalo and has a season-high 96 rushing yards. Marcus Murphy has added 44 rushing yards and Matt Barkley has completed 9-of-15 passes for 146 yards in his first start since the 2016 season.
The Jets defense will come in for criticism for that performance, but their offense shouldn’t avoid a lashing. They had nine yards on their first four possessions and finished the half with 68 total yards. Josh McCown threw an interception, took a pair of sacks and the biggest gain of the half was wiped out when the team was flagged for three holding penalties on an Elijah McGuire run.
Only one of them counted, which is pretty much the only positive for the Jets until Jason Myers hit a 56-yard field goal at the second quarter whistle.