On a day only a water fowl could love, Bills found a way to win: Here's how

ORCHARD PARK - We have certainly been spoiled the past few seasons by the dynamic Buffalo Bills offense, which is why it’s hard to wrap our heads around days like Sunday afternoon when Josh Allen and company struggled so much.

It’s just such an unfamiliar sight to watch the star quarterback and his supporting cast play as sloppily as they did in the first half of their extremely hard-fought 20-12 victory over the New York Jets on a miserable December day at Highmark Stadium.

“Listen, they’re a good defense, so I’ll start there and give them the credit,” coach Sean McDermott said. “Overall not enough early for us. Fundamentally we dropped some passes, we were off the mark a little bit earlier with our passing game and then we’ve just got to do a better job being more consistent.”

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Fortunately for the Bills, they found a little magic at the end of the first half - not coincidentally right after the Jets lost their most dominant defensive player, Quinnen Williams - and then did just enough in the second half to squeeze past a New York team that, without question, has been the toughest opponent the Bills have played all year.

Sound crazy? It shouldn’t.

Yeah, the Chiefs are very good, and so are the Dolphins. But neither of those teams gave Buffalo more problems than the resurgent Jets did in the two-game series which was split.

“It’s a good good defense, man,” said Allen, who threw for a season-low 147 yards. “They play very hard, they’re coached really well, they’ve got some really good players over there, obviously. And playing these division games, teams see you twice, they kind of know what you like, know what you typically like to do, so they can kind of game plan around that a little more specifically.”

Bills report card: Greg Rousseau, defensive line bail out offense to put away Jets

'Football weather' in Buffalo leads to 10 straight punts to open the game

For all the fans who wax nostalgic about “football weather”, well, I hope you enjoyed the mess of offensive buffoonery that the rain and wind and snow and generally miserable conditions helped to produce.

That’s not to discredit the mostly outstanding play of both defenses, but if it wasn’t the type of day only water fowl could love, there likely would have been more happening than 10 consecutive punts to start the game, something - according to the CBS broadcast - that hadn’t happened in the NFL since 2016.

As for the Bills, this was the first time they punted on five straight possessions since Allen’s third career start in 2018 at Green Bay.

And yes, if that sounds ugly, it was.

“The Jets defense is obviously very talented across the board,” said tight end Dawson Knox, who scored the Bills first touchdown. “And anytime we get weather conditions like this, it definitely affects offense a little bit. We’ve got the best quarterback in the league, the best receiver in the league, so stuff like timing, the ball is always wet, the wind’s whipping, I don’t know if you call that snow or rain or a little bit of mix, but it’s naturally just gonna affect the game a little bit.”

A little bit?

The Bills had 18 net yards in the first quarter, and when they took possession at their own 30 with 3:04 left in the half, they had a total of 38 yards and three first downs.

Dawson Knox moves under center in big play at end of first half

Here, things finally started working, and the Jets lent a helping hand to Buffalo. On a fourth-and-1 at the 39, McDermott made the bold decision to go for it. And yes, it was bold given the way the game was going.

The Bills shifted into a formation where Knox moved under center, and for some reason, Jets linebacker C.J. Mosley decided to jump over the line and tackle Knox before the ball was snapped. Offsides, first down.

“That might have been one of my favorite plays ever in the league, just to get under center,” Knox said with a smile. “Throwback to the high school days. The defense is thinking for sure QB sneak, tight end sneak, whatever you want to call it. So, get up under there, give him a second, give a loud cadence and I got (Mosley) flying over like Troy Polamalu. So that was a fun play to get a first down.”

Allen completed two passes to Isaiah McKenzie for 15 yards, took off for an 11-yard scramble to the Jets 29, and then the Jets Michael Carter was called for defensive holding, giving Buffalo a first down at the 24 with 34 seconds to go.

Knox followed with the biggest play of the half as he worked himself open on the right side, Allen delivered, and Knox leaped over Jets cornerback Sauce Gardner inside the 5 and somersaulted his way into the end zone.

The Jets shook that off pretty quickly as they took the second half kickoff and marched 72 yards in 10 plays to Zonovan Knight’s 13-yard TD run, a play where the Bills missed three tackles. On that series, the Jets also converted a third-and-12 and a third-and-10, the latter a beautiful Mike White to Braxton Berrios 25-yard pass.

Back came the Bills with a lightning-quick six-play, 75-yard drive that began with a 32-yard catch and run by Stefon Diggs and ended with Allen smashing up the middle from the 5-yard-line to make it 14-7.

Bills defense makes big plays in second half

With the rain converting to a fine snow, on the ensuing possession, the Bills delivered a major blow on back-to-back plays. Matt Milano crushed White as he delivered a pass and knocked him out of the game briefly. On the next snap, Greg Rousseau - who had a fantastic game - blew into the backfield to sack backup Joe Flacco and force a fumble which was recovered by DaQuan Jones at the Jets 44.

The Bills seemed headed for another touchdown, but Isaiah McKenzie dropped a pass that would have converted a third down, and the Bills settled for Tyler Bass’ 38-yard field goal.

Buffalo tacked on a 49-yard Bass field goal early in the fourth to make it 20-7, but the Jets pulled within 20-9 when Jermaine Johnson blocked a Sam Martin punt out of the end zone with 7:30 remaining.

After the free kick, the Jets were on the move, but Damar Hamlin made a huge play to force a Michael Carter II fumble and Milano recovered at the Buffalo 22. It seemed like that might be the final dagger, but the Jets simply refused to quit.

They got the ball back with 3:13 to go and drove to a 26-yard Greg Zuerlein field goal that cut the gap to 20-12 with 1:18 left, and they still had all their timeouts.

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Naturally, the Bills went three and out, and the defense had to survive the final 46 seconds, but here, White threw four straight incompletions to close out the game and send everyone home breathing a cold sigh of relief.

Bills vs Jets: By the numbers

▶ 5,162 - That’s how many total yards the Bills have, their third-highest total in team history through 13 games, topped only by the 1991 and 1975 teams.

▶ 232 - That’s how many yards the Bills had in the game, their season low. It's only the fifth time in the NFL this season a team won with 232 yards or less. This was the first time the Bills won a game with that few yards since 2018.

▶ 6 - Rushing TDs for Allen, making him the first QB in NFL history to have five straight seasons with at least six rushing TDs. With 37 for his career, he’s now tied with Tobin Rote and Steve McNair for the fourth-most rushing TDs by a QB.

Game balls

▶ DE Greg Rousseau: He is being tasked with taking over the game-wrecking role that Miller had and the 2021 first-round pick has been up to the task in the two games Miller has missed. He was a dominant player in this game.

▶ LB Matt Milano: He didn’t practice until Friday and was questionable for the game, but he shrugged off his knee injury and had another outstanding game with nine tackles, two pass breakups and a fumble recovery. His 12 tackles for loss are third-most among LBs in the NFL.

▶ DE A.J. Epenesa: It has been a slow go for the edge rusher since he came into the NFL in 2020, but he’s starting to find it. He had a sack, five tackles, a forced fumble and a batted down pass.

▶ TE Dawson Knox: It was good to see him get involved in the passing game and his 24-yard TD broke the seal for the offense late in the first half.

What’s next for the Bills

Saturday night, the Bills host a Miami team that lost to the Chargers in Los Angeles Sunday night, 23-17, to fall to 8-5 and two games behind the Bills. It was a huge result for the Bills who now, even if they should lose to the Dolphins, would remain in first place in the AFC East with three weeks to play.

And if the Bills win, they will be almost assured their third straight division crown. They would clinch the division with one win in their final three games, or one loss by Miami.

Sal Maiorana can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana.To subscribe to Sal's new twice-a-week newsletter, Bills Blast, please follow this link: https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Buffalo Bills win in sloppy game against NY Jets: Here's how