During the Chan Gailey era the Bills followed a blowout loss with another loss. There wasn’t a whole lot of rallying around each other or that let’s win one for the Gipper mentality. Will Marrone’s crew fair any differently? We’ll have to wait and see.
Quarterback:
The Geno vs. EJ debate will be back on center stage this week. And in this phase it’s probably not fair to EJ, coming back from his injury and without Woods and Stevie. Geno also has an extra week to prepare for a defense that forced him into 3 turnovers in the last meeting. But look at me making excuses. In loses this season Smith has 1TD/9INT’s, pressuring him is the difference in getting a win, he also hasn’t thrown a TD in 2 weeks. = Bills
EJ Manuel: 107/189 for 1,140 yards, 56%, 6TD/4INT, 76.2 QBR
Geno Smith: 158/272 for 1,997 yards, 58%, 8TD/13INT, 71.0 QBR
Running back:
The Jets bring with them the 9th ranked rushing attack led by Bilal Powell a guy who hasn’t rushed for more than 70 yards since gashing the Bills for 150 in week 3. Powell carried the ball 27x in that game averaging 5.5ypc. It was a horrific display for the Bills defense. The Bills struggled on the ground in the last meeting outside of Jackson’s 59 yards bounce-out they were held to about 2 yards per carry. Both teams are going to try and win this on the ground and I give the Bills the edge = Bills
Fred Jackson: 129/557 yards, 4.3ypc, 6TD
Bilal Powell: 109/414, 3.8ypc, 1TD
Wide Receivers/Tight ends:
The Bills are a mess at WR right now. But I am excited about the wrinkle Chris Gragg can bring. He’s very quick for a TE and could present match-up problems for LBers. The Bills will need to rely heavily on TE’s because TJ Graham and Flash Goodwin can not fill the shoes of Stevie and Woods. For the Jets getting Santonio Holmes back is a big deal, but let’s not forget his huge numbers (10/154 yards, 1TD) were against Justin Rogers, expect Gilmore to have a good bounce back game against the speedster. = Jets
Jeremy Kerley: 28/347 yards, 2TD
Stephen Hill: 23/340 yards, 1TD
Scott Chandler: 35/388 yards, 2TD
TJ Graham: 16/198, 0TD
Oline:
Bills and Jets both sit at 30th in the league with 31 sacks allowed. An interesting point though, the Jets have lost 40 more yards on sacks. The Bills Oline was outstanding against the Chiefs and dismal against the Steelers. Looking both teams and how they fared against the Saints I give the edge to the Jets. = Jets
Dline/LBers:
The 2013 Bills have been anything but consistent, but the front 7 has really shown to be the core of this team. Every week someone is making a play, Dareus, Williams and Williams have all gotten to the QB at least 5x, Jerry Hughes has stepped up making Lawsons injury be less of a factor, opposing teams are beginning to hate playing Buffalo. The Jets rush is also very credible they get most their pressure from “self proclaimed best defensive player” Mo Wilkerson. The Jets sacked EJ Manuel 8x in the first match-up, with Goodwin and Graham, EJ better have a hot read on every play. = Bills
Jerry Hughes: 33 Tackles, 6 sacks, 2FF
Kiko Alonso: 99 Tackles, 2 Sacks. 1FF
Muhammed Wilkerson: 31 Tackles, 8 Sacks, 2FF
Calvin Pace: 31 Tackles, 5 Sacks, 2FF
Defensive backs:
Circle Sunday on your calendar. The Bills secondary will bounce back and they’ll take advantage of a rookie QB and a weak receiving core. Holmes will certainly not like the physical style of Gilmores play and Jim Leonard will probably play the most snaps he’s seen since Byrds return. The Jets have 5 INT’s on the year and opponents avg QBR against them is a 90. Manuel was terribly erratic last week but as a whole he does a good job protecting the football. = Bills
Aaron Williams: 59 Tackles, 8PD, 3INT
Jim Leonard: 30 Tackles, 3PD, 3INT
Antonio Allen: 49 Tackles, 4PD, 1INT
Dawan Landry: 46 Tackles, 6PD, 1INT
Much to my surprise I really think the Bills have an opportunity in this matchup. Jets are rested and healthy for the most part, Bills are banged up going into week 11 without a bye, but on paper the Bills win a lot of the important match-ups. Marrone is fired up hopefully that spills over to the field with the players. It’s a big game, it’s at home and it’s going into a bye week. I keep reading that Rex called his brother Rob for some inside information, any chance Doug picked up the phone and called Sean? We can only hope.
