The Bills won ugly. There is really no debate about that. But we already knew they could do the ugly part. The key word from Sunday is the word “won.”
Sure, the Jets played like a team hell-bent on giving the game away. Sure, Rex Ryan coached like he was Hank Bullough. Sure, Mark Sanchez played like a Molotov quarterback cocktail of Rob Johnson and JP Losman. But in the end, Buffalo finally got a win in the AFC East, and they will take it. They have to. The Jets gave them a gift and it’s impolite not to accept a gift.
What did we learn from Sunday’s game?
Dick Jauron: We learned that his players will play for him. You cannot argue that the Bills lacked effort. But we also learned that even in a win this Buffalo team looks disorganized. They make an immense amount of mistakes, and they don’t show any signs of being a winning team.
Bills Offense: Trent Edwards is out. My guess is that we won’t see him for about a month with this concussion. Ryan Fitzpatrick is a gamer. But he’s not an answer. We will get a chance to see what the career backup can do for the next few games, but I don‘t believe either one of these guys is a long term answer at quarterback. It was nice to see that Lee Evans still plays on the team. His catch on what proved to be the winning drive should never have been overturned by replay.
Bills Defense: Having Posluszny and Whitner back does make a difference. But the run defense was abysmal. They have given up nearly 1,000 yards on the ground over the last month. Just why the Jets even bothered to let Sanchez throw the ball is a mystery to me. But that is the Jets' problem. The Bills “D” showed some guts on the road and we have rarely seen that over the past couple of years.
Bills Special Teams: What happened? Another fumble on a kick. This time it was because a player was unaware of where the ball was bouncing. A great runback called back because of a penalty. A missed field goal with a chance to win it at the end of regulation. Of course, it did not help that the Bills went in a shell in the final minute and did not try to get the ball closer for Rian Lindell. But at least in the end, Lindell redeemed himself and got a much-needed game winner.
The Rest of the Season: I am not going to pile on Dick Jauron today. We have done that enough over the last few weeks. No matter how disturbing to watch, he did get his team a win. They finally got a victory in the AFC East, and they gave themselves a chance to salvage something. I was dead wrong saying that they would not compete Sunday. Sure, the Jets helped a lot, but the Bills showed more than I thought they still had left. But this team is still in a lot of trouble long term, and I don’t think anything happened Sunday to change my mind on that.
