By Nick Wojton / Billswire.usatoday.com
Where the heck did that come from?
The Buffalo Bills are used to receiving the beatings in 2018. A little Matt Barkley added in the mix and it looked like there was a completely different team on the field on Sunday as the Bills took a 41-10 win.
With that, here are five takeaways from the Bills win over the Jets:
Barkley can do this
Without a doubt, on a handful of days of preparation, Barkley had the best game of any Bills quarterback this season. Even Josh Allen against the Vikings didn’t look this good, he mainly did it with his legs that day.
Barkley displayed some touch, he stuck balls into tight windows with a bit of zip, and he didn’t make mistakes. Overall, Barkley finished the game 15-for-25 passing for 232 yards with two touchdowns and no giveaways. From the get-go, Barkley looked like a different type of QB for the Bills this season. They won because of him, not in spite of him. Even when Barkley left a ball in a bad spot, he either got it in a good enough position for his receiver to make a play or he didn’t let it affect him. Moving forward, the Bills have their bye week. After, do they turn it back over to Allen or stay content with Barkley?
Zay’s day
Against the New England Patriots on Monday Night Football, Jones had a likely career day. Not by numbers, but just by his overall performance. Last week he went quiet with only 18 yards. If Barkley does stick around as the starter, Jones might benefit from that in a big way.
It was evident that Barkley looked like he had confidence in Jones, looking his way on several occasions. In total, Jones had eight catches for 93 yards on 11 targets. The next highest target total was four targets for Robert Foster, who had a strong day of his own with three grabs and 105 yards. Jones did fumble on a play that he didn’t need to stretch for the line of scrimmage on, he had the first down, but the Bills still scored on that play and Jones scored himself later in the day. This is what the Bills saw in him as a second-round pick and this is now his new best career-game.
Shady’s still trying
It hasn’t been a good few weeks for running back LeSean McCoy. The 30-year-old wasn’t happy. McCoy had 10 yards on 10 carries last week. Two weeks ago was a 12 carry, 13-yard outing. He didn’t speak for nearly a week and a half. Folks worried he was mad he wasn’t shipped out at the trade deadline. On Friday McCoy said he’s happy in Buffalo. On Sunday, he showed it on the field.
McCoy hadn’t got into the end zone this season until Sunday. He did so twice. Overall, McCoy had 26 carries for 113 yards. Barkley’s game finally provided a complement to McCoy so the Jets couldn’t only focus in on him. He needs that help, he got that help, and it showed.
Defense gets its support
All season long, it’s been the same story. The Bills’ defense has a good game and doesn’t get any type of complement from the offense. The offensive finally had it’s spark and that’ll be the overall focal point of this one. However, the defense continued their dominance.
Against Josh McCown, the Bills made the Jets wish Sam Darnold was a lot healthier. McCown was sacked three times, including one each via Jerry Hughes, Jordan Poyer and Shaq Lawson. In total, he was hit eight times on the day. Matt Milano and Micah Hyde easily stepped in front of McCown passes for interceptions. The Jets did get a rushing score, but overall, only had 83 yards on the game. As a team, the Jets only had 199 yards of offense. All-around strong game for Buffalo’s defense.
Tricks continue
Barkley deserves credit. McCoy does. Zay, too. But so does offensive coordinator Brian Daboll. Two weeks ago on Monday Night Football, the Bills unveiled some tricky looks. There were plenty of wildcat looks and trick throws.
Last week, the Bills got away from that a bit, but to their credit, it didn’t appear that they’ve been scared off by its previous lack of success. The Bills ran a fake punt via a Logan Thomas pass which was successful and this game will be remembered for left tackle Dion Dawkins’ touchdown catch. Those were the sexy plays, but overall, the game plan was good. A great idea to throw deep on the first play of the game seemed to open things up, and keep them open, throughout the entire game.