By Matthew Johnson / Billswire.usatoday.com
It was an ugly way to start the season.
A win is a win, however, as the Buffalo Bills scored 17 unanswered points to beat the New York Jets 17-16 in their Week 1 matchup.
The on-field play was sloppy with poor blocking and reads. In simple terms, it was ugly. Luckily for Buffalo, it pulled out a crucial win that displayed character, discipline, and resiliency.
Here are your winners and losers from the Bills’ Week 1 win over the Jets.
Winner : Devin Singletary
Devin Singletary’s presence and growth in the preseason made LeSean McCoy expendable. It took a while against the Jets to get him usage, but you could tell there was a difference with the functionality of the offense once Singletary was put to use.
Frank Gore was used as the primary running back in the first half, although rarely used, giving up a safety. Josh Allen threw the ball in the first half as well, making the team rather one-dimensional.
Once made a featured player, Singletary went to work, quickly gaining 70 yards on the ground in 4 rushes. He also caught five passes for 28 yards on the day. A good sign for his usage in the future.
Winner : John Brown
John Brown potentially established himself as the Bills WR1 today against the Jets, earning a little more than half of the team’s total receiving yards. Seven catches, 123 yards to be exact, as well as a big 38-yard touchdown reception that helped Buffalo take the lead with three minutes left in the game.
Brown was signed to Buffalo with big expectations after stints in Baltimore and Arizona. It was hoped and expected that Allen would be able to expose the Jets’ secondary, and Brown was the biggest benefactor of that.
Winner : The Defensive Unit
The defense was on-field for the majority of the game, and it did what was expected and hoped for any decent defense.
Keeping the offense in the game.
There was some blown coverage that led to a Le’Veon Bell touchdown and two-point conversion. The Bills defense allowed 254 yards total, but isolated the Jets rush attack to only 68 yards.
The Bills’ defense is expected to be one of the best this year, and if they can continue to keep the team in games and hold opponents to under 21 points, this is a good sign for the team going forward.
Jordan Poyer, Matt Milano, and Siran Neal shined for Buffalo’s defense this day, with good showings from Lorenzo Alexander, Jerry Hughes, and Shaq Lawson. Each of the latter three were able to get into the backfield and sack Sam Darnold.
Loser: The Offensive Line
This wasn’t the O-Line that we were looking for.
Botched snaps, fumbles, penalties and getting beat at the line of scrimmage made for a long first half for Allen. The offense struggled to get any traction, mostly in part of the offensive line.
Allen was forced to make a lot of plays on his feet to extend drives, something that was hoping to be avoided, but a valuable quality of Allen’s. The limited time available, and frequently collapsing pocket, didn’t give Allen as much time to make reads as he would’ve probably liked. Allen threw two interceptions, and could easily be attributed to the messy backfield that Allen was running around in.
This was center Mitch Morse’s first live-game with the Bills’ in the starting rotation, as he sat out all preseason in concussion protocol. There is room for improvement.