TONY’S TAKE – A PREVIEW OF BILLS-JETS
- Tony Fiorello
- 5 days ago
- 20 min read
by Tony Fiorello
Welcome to Week 18 of the 2025 NFL season. Here at Buffalo Sports Page we will attempt to inform and educate our readers about the Buffalo Bills’ upcoming opponent and what each team might do to emerge victorious.
The Bills’ 17th game of 2025 will take place at Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park, New York as they face the New York Jets. Here’s what you should know:
GANG GREEN’S DEFENSE MISSING PLAYMAKERS
A unit that was overseen by former head coach Robert Saleh and ex-defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich over the last four years has different leaders in 2025. New head honcho Aaron Glenn – a one-time Jets cornerback and a 15-year NFL veteran – comes from Detroit where he spent the last four seasons turning around their defense, and to help him coordinate it Glenn employed the well-traveled Steve Wilks but he was recently relieved of his duties.
In his first three campaigns in the Motor City the Lions’ defense didn’t perform consistently, but 2024 finally saw Glenn enjoy the fruits of his labor to a degree. First on third down, seventh in points allowed, fifth versus the run and tied for 10th in takeaways (but just 20th in total yards given up and third-last against the pass), Glenn’s charges – who execute well-designed pressure schemes such as overload concepts – also used one of the league’s highest percentages of man coverage and blitzes. Perhaps that approach will carry over to Manhattan.
An underrated pair in Tony Adams and Andre Cisco usually patrols the Jets’ back end (both are injured and replaced by Dean Clark and Malachi Moore) while former Baltimore Raven Brandon Stephens holds down one outside cornerback spot (Stephens is big and physical but can be had by good route runners).
The opposite boundary corner position used to be occupied by Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner. 2022’s fourth overall draft pick out of the University of Cincinnati, Gardner – who boasts smarts, length, strength to jam wideouts in press coverage and adeptness in both man and zone coverage – may be the best Cover Three corner to enter the NFL since Richard Sherman. But he was sent to the Indianapolis Colts at the trade deadline in exchange for a pair of first round draft picks, and he’s currently replaced by Qwan’tez Stiggers.
Jermaine Johnson, Michael Clemons and Will McDonald IV (currently injured) are the team’s main edge rushers and can rush with quickness and speed to power. New York also employed a pair of talented defensive tackles in All-Pro Quinnen Williams and ex-Bill Harrison Phillips, but like Gardner, Williams was also traded at the deadline to the Dallas Cowboys for draft pick compensation.
Quincy Williams, Jamien Sherwood and Mykal Walker are New York’s starters at linebacker. As talented as they are, they’ve shown a tendency to have problems containing running plays on toss-crack concepts and dealing with unusual formations – they don’t communicate well when trying to defend unbalanced lines, for example. Williams also relies too much on his instincts and Sherwood is still learning the position after switching from safety after his college career, however they’re both good blitzers.
As the Jets have accumulated more talent over the last few years, their defense has taken some leaps in improvement. After ranking dead last in the NFL in points allowed and total yards surrendered in 2021, New York was fourth and third in total yards given up in 2022 and ’23. Last year they were third in total yards allowed, fourth against the pass and tied for 11th in sacks but 17th against the run, 20th in points allowed and tied for 20th in takeaways.
They were also one of the most penalized teams in football, but like the rest of their team this unit has taken a nosedive. They’re 16th versus the pass but 23rd in total yards allowed, 27th against the run and 30th in points allowed. Additionally, they could become the first team since 1933 to end a season without an interception.
BIG APPLE’S OFFENSE STARTING OVER
There have also been changes on the Jets’ offensive side of the ball. Glenn and first-year offensive coordinator Tanner Engstrand are bringing an approach that they utilized in Detroit to much success and has its roots going back to the Rams under Sean McVay and Sean Payton’s New Orleans Saints. It’s one with plenty of under-center play-action (no team has used more under-center passes or play-action more than Detroit over the last few years), shifts, motions, high-low concepts and downfield option routes with defined reads.
New York also has a new quarterback. After Glenn, Engstrand and new general manager Darren Mougey let aging future Hall of Famer Aaron Rodgers walk, they decided to take a flyer on a reclamation project in former Chicago Bears first-round draft pick Justin Fields. Fields – while possessing physical gifts like a strong arm, toughness, mobility and speed – will leave the pocket too quickly if his first read isn’t there or if he perceives pressure. He has a late release and needs to work on his anticipatory skills and processing coverages post-snap, and although those mental abilities have improved along with his sense of timing and ability to manipulate defenders with his eyes, Fields still hasn’t been consistent enough. He’s now injured and was originally replaced by journeyman (and ex-Bill) Tyrod Taylor, but his ineffective play has allowed rookie Brady Cook to get some playing time.
The Jets’ wide receivers include one of the league’s best in Garrett Wilson, Josh Reynolds (both are injured and out for Sunday), former Colts draft pick Adonai Mitchell and John Metchie III. Jeremy Ruckert and Mason Taylor are New York’s tight ends.
Breece Hall, who possesses good size and movement skills with pass-catching ability, is the Jets’ top running back (out for Sunday). He operates behind an offensive line that has undergone a facelift – while Alijah Vera-Tucker (currently injured) remains Gang Green’s right guard, new faces include John Simpson, Joe Tippmann, Josh Myers and a pair of recent first round draft picks in Olu Fashanu and Armand Membou. Fashanu had a rough rookie season a year ago – his concerns coming out of Penn State were that he has balance and body control issues while reaching and lunging at defenders too often and displaying stiffness in pass protection. Those must be coached out of him.
Few areas on offense were good statistically for the Jets in 2024. They were 24th in total yards, 16th in passing, second-last in rushing and tied for 26th in scoring, and 2025 hasn’t been any better. Although New York is seventh in rushing, they’re 28th in both scoring and total yards, and last in passing.
Additionally, they haven’t scored more than 22 points in each of their last 13 outings against the Bills. The Jets come into this game having lost four straight by 20 points or more and they’ve lost eight games by 13 or more points – the worst such mark in pro football.
BUFFALO’S DEFENSE USUALLY GOOD, BUT HAS HAD A ROUGH 2024 AND ‘25
For most of head coach Sean McDermott’s time in Buffalo, the Bills’ defense was one of the league’s best. Points allowed (fourth in the NFL in that category in 2023), total yards per game allowed (ninth), passing yards given up (seventh), rushing yards surrendered (15th), takeaways (third), interceptions (tied for fourth) and sacks (fourth, tied for second-most in their history with the 2014 team) have generally been the categories that the Bills have excelled at over the years, with 2023’s sack total being the best of the McDermott era.
2024, however, was a year of transition for the Bills on defense. Due to age and salary cap complications, out the door were longtime veterans such as Jordan Poyer, Tre’Davious White, Dane Jackson, Shaq Lawson, Leonard Floyd, Linval Joseph, Tim Settle, Kaylon “Poona” Ford and Tyrel Dodson.
Especially when one includes names from the past on the defensive line such as Kyle Williams, Marcel Dareus, Jerry Hughes, Mario Addison, Star Lotulelei, Quinton Jefferson, Carlos “Boogie” Basham, Trent Murphy, Vernon Butler, Justin Zimmer, Efe Obada, Harrison Phillips, Dawuane Smoot, Austin Johnson and Casey Toohill – that’s a lot of turnover during the last eight years. The answer, according to McDermott, general manager Brandon Beane and defensive coordinator Bobby Babich, is youth and cheap veterans to provide cost-effective depth (Buffalo made it to the AFC title game last year with the third-most dead money on the salary cap in the NFL and used just 71 percent of the cap).
Some of those younger players – albeit young veterans since they are in their fifth and sixth professional seasons, respectively – who have been asked to take on a greater role include Greg Rousseau and A.J. Epenesa, who can both line up on the edge and go inside in passing situations. Da’Quan Jones (out for Sunday), perhaps their best run-stuffing lineman, is effective on T-T stunts with Ed Oliver (out for the rest of the regular season), an excellent gap penetrator.
They are backed up by familiar faces in Lawson, Jordan Phillips and second-year men Javon Solomon and DeWayne Carter (Carter is out for the season with a torn Achilles tendon) while rookies Deone Walker, T.J. Sanders and Landon Jackson (currently injured) learn the ropes of the NFL. Ex-Charger Joey Bosa, a five-time Pro Bowler and 10-year pro, fills the role that future Hall of Famer Von Miller settled into after a torn ACL 11 games into his first season compromised his play on the field. Additionally, veterans Matthew Judon, Larry Ogunjobi and Michael Hoecht provide valuable depth (Hoecht, out for the season after tearing his Achilles tendon, is an intelligent and versatile chess piece who can be deployed in multiple ways).
Over the years Buffalo has been inconsistent in two areas – creating a consistent pass rush and stopping the run. The run issues are mainly caused by poor tackling (their missed and broken tackle percentage has been among the highest in the NFL for years), a lack of gap integrity, subpar eye discipline, inefficient communication and an inability to get off blocks and handle motion and misdirection (which causes issues with leverage, spacing and run fits). Perhaps the infusion of new faces can eventually put those issues to bed once and for all, but they’ve reared their ugly heads yet again in 2025.
Schematically the Bills’ defense mostly relies on basic zones after the snap (they’re typically among the top units in the NFL in usage of coverages with two high safeties such as Cover Two, Two-Man, Four and Six, although they’ve used more single-high coverages recently so they could put more bodies in the box to stop the run and limit communication) but before the snap it is complex. Safety rotations to disguise their intentions keep opposing quarterbacks guessing and selective pressure looks at the line of scrimmage and coverage exchanges are the team’s calling cards.
Those blitz looks usually happen in the A-gaps with the smaller, but smart, speedy and athletic Matt Milano and Terrell Bernard to confuse opposing offensive lines and quarterbacks, but Buffalo rarely sends five or more pass rushers – their favorite blitz tactic besides A-gappers are four-man zone exchanges, although they’ve incorporated more fire zones as of late. In 2024’s regular season they were 27th in blitz rate but Buffalo blitzed Lamar Jackson on 15 out of 31 drop-backs (48.4%) in the playoffs, their fifth-highest blitz rate in a game under McDermott and their highest in a game since Week 15 of 2021, according to Next Gen Stats.
Bernard (out for Sunday) has become a good blitzer and coverage ‘backer – his 6.5 sacks in 2023 were the most by an off-the-ball linebacker in Bills annals and he became the first NFL player since Seth Joyner in 1991 with six sacks, three picks and three fumble recoveries in a season. He and Milano are also adept at being used to spy quarterbacks – they spied Jackson on every third down in last year’s postseason – but Bernard, like most of his teammates, has dealt with injuries and hasn’t quite looked like himself.
For the third straight year, Milano suffered another major injury – this time a pectoral problem (although he’s healthy for now). When he misses time, Dorian Williams usually picks up the slack. Williams has displayed flashes of quickness and burst but is sometimes slow to key and diagnose at the line of scrimmage. He also takes false steps and needs to process better in coverage, but is athletic, long and fluid and has improved with more experience. He had increased playing time in the playoffs to stop Baltimore’s running game, as evidenced by being on the field for a third of Buffalo’s snaps.
Additional depth comes from former Carolina Panther Shaq Thompson and Joe Andreessen. Andreessen, a University at Buffalo product who hails from nearby Lancaster, showed excellent diagnostic skills at the line of scrimmage in the preseason while also displaying strong hands, a quick downhill trigger that allows him to shoot gaps well and some speed and range. It helps that he played in a similar role as Milano while in college. Thompson, meanwhile, has turned back the clock with some strong performances in both pass coverage and run support.
The Bills have mainly utilized nickel personnel over the last several years (90.8 percent in ’21, 94.8 in ’22, 79.7 in ’23, 78.3 last year and around 60 so far this year) but their percentage of 4-3 base personnel has gone up this year to combat the run (around 20 percent in ’25 and they’ve added in some 3-3-5 looks down the stretch). When Milano is out with injury, they’ve also increased their usage of dime personnel with three safeties to help offset his loss in pass coverage (17.2 percent in ’23, 15.9 in ’24 and around 20 so far this year) and in the past, that setup featured Poyer near the line of scrimmage, Micah Hyde and ex-Ram Taylor Rapp on the back end.
The Bills’ safety position is currently manned by the aging but still capable Poyer (out for Sunday) and Cole Bishop (an underrated and cerebral athlete who can also drop down in the box). Rapp, who is better playing near the line of scrimmage and the rangy and physical but inconsistent Damar Hamlin are both on injured reserve – filling their absence is veteran Darnell Savage.
At the boundary cornerback spots are White (who, like Poyer, is back after a year away to replace Rasul Douglas) and Christian Benford, and they are backed up by Jackson (another experienced face back on the practice squad) and speedy rookies Max Hairston and Dorian Strong (also on injured reserve). Slot corner Taron Johnson remains strong in the quickness and tackling departments and he’s backed up by Cam Lewis and rookie Jordan Hancock, who can both fill in at safety too. Hancock has shown to be effective as a single-high post defender.
2024 saw the Bills end the regular season 11th in points allowed, 12th against the run, 17th in total yards, tied for 18th in sacks and 24th versus the pass. They were also 29th in third down percentage, gave up the most completions, yards and touchdowns in the NFL on screen plays and allowed nine touchdowns on plays of four seconds or longer – the most in the league according to Cover 1’s Eric Turner. However, they were third in takeaways and were fifth-best in allowing plays of 20 yards or more.
Yet this unit’s 2025 season has been quite uneven. Although they’re first versus the pass, they’re 12th in total yards given up and points allowed and fourth-worst versus the run (their number of takeaways has gone up though – Buffalo had just five in their first six games and now have had 15 in their last 10). Clearly McDermott – who has had a bigger say in play-calling on gameday lately – and Babich have their work cut out for them on this side of the ball.
BILLS’ OFFENSE IS UPPER-ECHELON, BUT QUESTIONS PERSIST ABOUT PASSING GAME
For six consecutive seasons, the Bills have boasted one of the NFL’s elite offenses for the first time since the K-Gun was running roughshod over the league more than 30 years ago. Led by quarterback Josh Allen’s improved processing skills both pre and post-snap, ball placement, patience within the pocket and touch on passes and a cadre of gifted pass-catchers, those factors have allowed Buffalo to become one of the most feared attacks in pro football.
Last year the strong-armed and mobile Allen was ninth in passer rating and rushing touchdowns and tied for seventh in passing scores. That allowed him to be named the NFL’s Most Valuable Player by the Associated Press, an honor previously bestowed upon just two other Bills (Thurman Thomas in 1991 and O.J. Simpson in ‘73).
In 2023 Buffalo was sixth in scoring, fourth in total yards, seventh in rushing and eighth in passing. They were also fifth in red zone efficiency, yet their offense performed poorly over a six-game stretch where they averaged just 20.5 points per game. It resulted in then-offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey getting the boot in favor of quarterbacks coach and former Carolina Panthers play-caller Joe Brady.
Like their defensive counterparts, the Bills went through changes on this side of the ball because of age, the salary cap and a new coordinator. With Brady taking over the role full-time, the biggest philosophical question on offense for Buffalo was how to retain elements of what made them so good in the first place while adding new and fresh concepts.
Between 2018 and ‘23, Buffalo’s offense was an Erhardt-Perkins system brought in from New England by then-coordinator Brian Daboll. It was built upon concepts involving option and crossing routes from the slot, downfield routes from the outside, run-pass options (especially in the red zone), designed quarterback runs to take advantage of Allen’s mobility and alignments that created favorable matchups and some trick plays with jet/orbit motion and sweeps. It was mostly out of “11” personnel groupings (one back, one tight end and three wide receivers) and “10” personnel (one back, no tight ends, four receivers) – and they would also go no-huddle from time to time to limit the opposition’s defensive calls.
The Bills’ multi-receiver sets were traditionally their offensive calling card. In 2020 they used four wide receivers or more 155 times – the second-most in the NFL at the time – and they utilized someone in motion on 43 percent of their offensive snaps, a huge increase from their 25 percent rate in 2019. Daboll, the ex-head coach of the New York Giants, also called for a passing play on 64 percent of their first downs, according to ESPN Stats and Information – no team with a winning record in the prior 20 years did it more than Buffalo. Heading into Week 18, the Bills are now the opposite as they pass on first down at one of the lowest rates in the NFL.
Daboll’s successor, Ken Dorsey, got away from some of those concepts and tried to rely on the talent at his disposal winning one-on-one matchups instead of having the scheme get them open. Once Brady was promoted, the Bills returned to them. He also included more under-center formations and play-action (which can still stand to increase after being a top-four team in run-fakes in 2020 and ’21), pre-snap shifts, motions and designed passes to running backs and route combinations with defined reads for Allen so he can play within timing and structure, but he does need to be better at creating spacing in his route concepts – especially at the intermediate levels.
Brady got his start in the NFL working for the New Orleans Saints and then-coach Sean Payton. Payton himself came from a melting pot of a background including stints running the Erhardt-Perkins scheme for Bill Parcells in Dallas and learning the West Coast offense from Jim Fassel with the New York Giants and from Jon Gruden during their one-year stint together in Philadelphia in 1997, so Brady will bring a similar approach to the table while likely keeping some things the same in Buffalo.
Their biggest transaction on offense last year was trading the aging Stefon Diggs to Houston. Diggs (now in New England), while never a burner on the outside, was an exceptional route runner who specialized in making contested catches and operated well out of bunch and stack formations – leading him to re-write many of the Bills’ single season receiving records.
In addition to Diggs, Buffalo has let veterans like John Brown, Emmanuel Sanders, Cole Beasley, Isaiah McKenzie, Jamison Crowder, Trent Sherfield, Deonte Harty and Amari Cooper walk over the years. Many of them were productive, but nothing can last forever – hence the overhaul of the Bills’ wide receiver room.
The Payton offense is built through having big, physical targets who can get open over the middle of the field, especially on deep in-cuts, or “dig” routes (although Buffalo hasn’t utilized them much). Payton has employed such players in those roles before like Marques Colston, Jimmy Graham, Michael Thomas and Courtland Sutton, and the drafting of Keon Coleman from Florida State last year fits the bill for Brady.
Coleman, whose game evoked comparisons to Colston, Brandon Marshall and Anquan Boldin coming out of college, brings size and physicality to the boundary ‘X’ position (and possibly the slot) with good body control and strong hands to make contested catches and has some run after the catch ability. He does need to work on his speed, quickness and ability to beat press coverage – along with learning how to be a pro athlete – but in time he may improve in those areas.
Along with Coleman is Curtis Samuel (out for Sunday), who can line up both in the slot and outside the numbers and take handoffs, free agent pickup Joshua Palmer and the speedy pair of Brandin Cooks and Mecole Hardman. Shifty pass-catcher Khalil Shakir (who is second in the NFL in receiving yards after contact) mans the slot with his quickness, sure hands and savviness to get open versus zone coverage, Gabriel Davis has returned to supply depth and Tyrell Shavers, a good blocker, has proven to be a new weapon after making the team’s active roster out of training camp. Overall, this group doesn’t possess a ton of speed beyond Cooks and Hardman – which makes the ability to manufacture intermediate and vertical plays harder.
Tight end Dawson Knox is joined by Dalton Kincaid and their diverse skillsets have allowed the Bills to throw curveballs at opponents with multiple tight end sets. Kincaid, who can line up as the boundary ‘X’ receiver in three-by-one alignments, lived up to the hype with 73 receptions as a rookie two years ago, the most of any first-year Bill and surpassed Pete Metzelaars for the most catches by a Bills tight end in one season. He also became the fourth rookie tight end since 1960 with 70 or more catches in a year.
The Bills’ offensive line is composed of Dion Dawkins, David Edwards, Connor McGovern (taking over at center for the departed Mitch Morse), O’Cyrus Torrence and Spencer Brown. This crew, along with fullback Reggie Gilliam has mainly executed outside zone runs along with zone-reads, pin-and-pull concepts, traps (especially with Dawkins as the puller), counters, sweeps, split inside zone/duo and sprint draw plays sprinkled in for running back James Cook.
Cook, who has rushed for over 1,000 yards in three straight seasons – the first back to accomplish that feat for Buffalo since Thurman Thomas did it eight years in a row from 1989-96 – boasts great vision, patience, burst and cutback ability (he also has six fumbles, the most in the NFL among running backs) and is backed up by physical second-year man Ray Davis, who also excels as a kick returner. Ex-Jet Ty Johnson brings solid receiving skills to the table.
The starting front five used to be iffy in providing push in the running game and in pass protection but has become a strength in recent years. In the past, most of the team’s rushing production came from Allen’s legs and few came from their backs – the Bills’ rushing attempts per game in 2022, 18.2, was last in the NFL but that number has jumped to the highest in the NFL since Brady was promoted.
In 2023 Allen was taken down just 24 times overall in 17 regular season outings, the best mark in pro football, and the team again led the league with just 14 sacks allowed last year (tied for the sixth-least since 2000). But the Bills’ pass protection has regressed back to the norm this season by allowing 40 sacks through 16 games – the most Allen has ever been sacked in a season. Although he and the offensive line have struggled to identify blitzes on the road and given up free rushers too often, it’s also on the team’s wide receivers failing to consistently create separation in the passing game (in turn causing Allen to hold on to the ball longer).
Buffalo also carried over their trend of using an extra offensive lineman to help in the running game. Now that Edwards has moved into the starting lineup, the sixth guy is Alec Anderson and the Bills had the highest rate of offensive snaps with six linemen on the field in ’24 – with most of them being called runs, and were near the top of the NFL in yards per carry and yards per play with six linemen on the field (rookie tight end Jackson Hawes, an excellent blocker and the replacement for Quintin Morris, is being used more in this regard with “13” personnel looks which diversifies what they can throw at opponents).
Another area the Bills needed to clean up was protecting the ball. They used to be one the league’s sloppiest teams – Allen had 14 interceptions and 13 fumbles in 2022 and he led the NFL with 18 interceptions in ’23. Last year Allen cut down on his interception total significantly with just six – a sign of progress in this regard (Allen became the third signal caller in NFL history to start a season with 10 touchdowns and no picks through his team’s first seven games).
In fact, the Bills tied the league record for fewest turnovers in a season with just eight (with the 2019 Saints). They also became the first team ever with less than 15 sacks allowed and fewer than 15 turnovers in the same season.
Buffalo ended the 2024 regular season second in points scored (the highest scoring team in franchise history) and red zone efficiency, 10th in total yards and ninth in rushing and passing and became the first team to ever have 30 passing and 30 rushing touchdowns in one season. They, along with the Chiefs, Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Commanders, were also the top four teams in the NFL on fourth down conversion rate.
So far they’re second in the NFL in rushing, fifth in total yards, sixth in scoring, 18th in passing and near the top of the league in explosive offensive plays (rushes of 10 yards and passes of 20 yards), under-center run rate (especially on “duo” calls) and red zone efficiency. The Bills also have the most second half runs in the NFL and one of the best second half point differentials, yet they’ve outscored their opponents by barely over three points-per-game since Week 10. They’ve also gone just one for seven on two point conversions this year.
Ex-49er Mitch Wishnowsky is the team’s third punter this year (he didn’t punt once against the Bengals – the first time the Bills have done that in three years) and kicker Tyler Bass is out for the season due to a groin injury – with 41-year-old former All-Pro Matt Prater replacing him. Prater, who holds the NFL record for most 50-plus yards field goals in a career, also owned the league mark for longest career field goal after he connected on a 64-yarder in 2013.
12 FACTS TO MUSE OVER
· Buffalo is 26-5 in December and January regular season games since 2020 – tops in the NFL. Their record against teams who are .500 or better is 6-3 (their mark against divisional opponents is 27-8 since 2020, best in the league).
· The Bills have clinched a playoff berth for the seventh straight season – a new franchise record (they’re also the fifth team ever to reach 11 wins in six straight seasons). Previously it was six from 1988-93.
· Buffalo’s record against rookie quarterbacks since 2019 is 10-3.
· Cook is on pace to become the first Bill to lead the NFL in rushing since O.J. Simpson in 1976, and he has the third-most rushing yardage in a season ever by a Buffalo Bill (ironically, Simpson crossed the 2,000 yard mark in the first year their stadium opened, and Cook could close it out with a rushing crown as well).
· Additionally, Buffalo has a 72-58 record against the Jets all-time, their best winning percentage against a divisional opponent.
· The Bills have won five of their last six games against the Jets and three of their last five meetings have been decided by six points or less.
· Also, the team’s plus-137 point differential against New York since 2020 is the second-highest by any team against one opponent in that span and the Bills have held the Jets without a touchdown on their opening drive in their last 24 meetings – the longest active streak in the NFL.
· In last week’s loss to Philadelphia, Buffalo held Jalen Hurts without a pass completion in the second half and the Eagles to 16 total yards in that timeframe. On the flip slide, the Eagles gave up just 120 rushing yards on 33 carries – the Bills’ fewest rushing yards since Week 11 and their lowest yards-per-carry since Week One.
· This game will be the last regular season matchup in the 53-year history of Highmark Stadium (formerly known as Rich Stadium, Ralph Wilson Stadium and New Era Field). Coming into Sunday, the Bills’ regular season record there is 246-163 dating back to 1973 (and they’re 16-3 in the postseason at that building all-time).
· McDermott’s win-loss mark at “The Ralph” since 2017 is 55-19 in the regular season, and Buffalo has gone 7-2 in the postseason there since 2019.
· The Bills’ first regular season opponent at “The Ralph” was the Jets in 1973, and Gang Green will be their final opponent in the regular season there as well.
· The longest winning streak at “The Raph” lasted 15 games from September 9, 1990 (a 26-10 opening day victory over the Indianapolis Colts) through December 1, 1991 (a 24-13 defeat of the Jets).