The Associated Press
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J.–There was one team that looked like a playoff contender last night.
It wasn’t the Buffalo Bills.
Buffalo’s pursuit of AFC East kingpin New England was stymied by the N.Y. Jets, who controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides in a 34-21 win that never was close in the second half.
Matt Forte ran for two touchdowns four days after complaining the Jets didn’t run the ball enough, and an overwhelming defence sacked Tyrod Taylor seven times.
“We played to what we do best,” Forte said. “Our offensive line likes to come off the line straight ahead and hit guys in the mouth and wear guys out like that.
“I think we started to wear them out as the game went on, and you saw some runs pop here and there.”
Buffalo (5-3) came in having scored 64 points in its last two wins, but self-destructed with turnovers and miscues.
Meanwhile, New York (4-5) snapped a three-game slide in which it held leads in each defeat.
“We’ve got a high ceiling,” defensive tackle Leonard Williams said. “We showed we can get takeaways, we showed we can get sacks, we showed we can stop the run.
“This is our first game putting it all together in a complete game.
“I feel like now that we showed it and put in on film, we’ll definitely challenge ourselves to keep progressing,” he added.
Forte scored on runs of 10 and five yards and had 14 carries for 77 yards.
Augmenting that was Bilal Powell with a 51-yard burst and 74 yards on nine carries.
Quarterback Josh McCown got in on the fun with a 10-yard scramble to open the scoring as New York rushed for 194 yards overall.
Jordan Jenkins had two of the Jets’ sacks as they never allowed Buffalo’s offence to get on track.
Indeed, mistakes were the Bills’ trademark last night.
“We came into their house and they just outplayed us,” Taylor said. “They were really aggressive today and played to their strengths.
“We have to stop the negative plays,” he stressed.
“Tonight we had turnovers on offence and that’s not our style of play.”
Even when the Bills recovered a late onside kick, they were flagged for offside.
Buffalo scored two late touchdowns to make the final margin less lopsided.
“We were outplayed fundamentally. We weren’t very good,” Bills’ coach Sean McDermott conceded.
