East Rutherford, N.J. (WGR 550) - The Buffalo Bills will be looking to start the season 7-1 for the fourth time in franchise history, and first time since 1993.
In order to do that, they’ll have to defeat the 5-3 New York Jets, who sit just behind them in second place in the AFC East.
Here are my three keys for the Bills to get the win:
1.) Pressure Zach Wilson
According to Pro Football Focus, when facing pressure, the Jets quarterback is the worst starting signal-caller in the league, among all qualifiers. In those situations, Wilson has 47 passing attempts, but only has a 19.1% completion rate. He’s also thrown five interceptions to only one touchdown pass.
According to Pro-Football Reference, the Bills have only blitzed 14.7% of their team’s defensive snaps, second-fewest in the NFL. However, despite that rate, they are fifth in the NFL in sacks per-pass attempt, getting to the opposing quarterback on 8.9% of their dropbacks.
They’ll want to keep getting pressure on Wilson and force him into the same mistakes he’s been making.
2.) Fix last week’s second half
The Bills offense wasn’t good in the second half of last Sunday night’s win over the Green Bay Packers, and especially not sharp in the fourth quarter.
There was a dropped pass by wide receiver Gabe Davis. There were runs for negative yards. There were also two interceptions thrown by Josh Allen, including one in the red zone.
Overall, the Bills gained 79 yards in the final quarter, turned the ball over twice, and failed to score a point.
The Bills have the top-ranked offense in the NFL in yards per-game gained, and are the second-highest scoring team in the league. They weren’t happy with the way they closed out the game last Sunday, and will want to, and need to be better on offense than they were in the second half of that game.
3.) Don’t let Williams and Mosley wreck it
The Jets have two terrific players in the interior of their defense.
Defensive tackle Quinnen Williams has been outstanding this season, and was recently named AFC Defensive Player of the Month for October. That is quite the feat for a player at his position. Williams earned the honor by recording 4.5 sacks, plus four tackles for loss, adding 12 quarterback hits, a forced fumble, and even blocking field goal.
Linebacker C.J. Mosley is second in the entire NFL with 82.0 total tackles.
Bills offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey and offensive line coach Aaron Kromer are no strangers to preparing for terrific interior defenders. They’ve already faced Los Angeles Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald, Tennessee Titans defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons, Pittsburgh Steelers defensive tackle Cam Hayward, and Kansas City Chiefs defensive tackle Chris Jones this season.
They’ll have to have a plan to not let Williams and Mosley control the game on Sunday, and wreck what they want to do.
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