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Buffalo redeems itself after Hail Mary and beats the Jets

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Buffalo redeems itself after Hail Mary and beats the Jets

EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ – As you can imagine, the Buffalo Bills were not a particularly happy bunch as they walked off the field at halftime at MetLife Stadium on Monday night.

They held a 20-10 lead against the New York Jets, and only 21 seconds separated them from that two-point lead at halftime. And then Aaron Rodgers completed a supernatural Hail Mary touchdown pass to Allen Lazard, and suddenly the Jets were alive and kicking.

“Yeah, obviously it's a slap in the face when you assume you have a two-point lead there and they catch a Hail Mary,” Josh Allen said.

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Of course, Allen wasn't exactly surprised because, after all, the guy throwing that pass has performed some miracles over the course of his two-decade NFL career.

“When you're on the other side, you're like 'that damn guy,' you know?” Allen said. “But we fight through adversity, come to halftime, regroup and say, 'Let's just take control one play at a time.' We didn’t score as many points in the second half as I would have liked, but we found a way.”

And interestingly, they found a way, as one of the defenders who fell victim to the Hail Mary, Taron Johnson, redeemed himself in the final two minutes when he intercepted a long shot from Rodgers that allowed Allen and the offense to do the rest to overtake the game and secured a hard-fought 23:20 victory.

“I mean, that had to happen to win the game,” Johnson said of his interception. “I just read the quarterback and saw the ball was in the air a little bit, so I was able to make a play.”

As for the Hail Mary, Johnson could only tip his hat, although Bills fans are certainly not prepared to leave it at that. Johnson is right that it was a great play by Lazard, but it was also a glaring failure by the Bills defense – something we've seen before – and they were lucky it didn't cost them the game.

This is how I evaluated the bills:

Pass offense: B-

Allen was efficient as he completed 19 of 25 passes for 215 yards with two touchdowns and, most importantly, he did not throw an interception for the sixth straight game. He nearly lost a fumble, but offensive guard O'Cyrus Torrence recovered it with a rebound deep in Jets territory, and on the next play Allen threw a 12-yard TD pass to Dawson Knox to bring the score to 20-10 increase.

Dalton Kincaid led the Bills with six catches for 51 yards, but the two biggest gains came from two unlikely sources. Ray Davis caught a 42-yard scramble drill ball that gave the Bills the go-ahead score on their second TD drive. And Curtis Samuel made a 38-yard reception on the first play of the third quarter, but that drive ended when Tyler Bass missed a field goal.

Still, Samuel had his best game as a Bill with three catches for 44 yards, and Keon Coleman added three for 26 yards. Khalil Shakir gave his best but was significantly slowed down by his ankle injury and caught just two for 19.

Up front, the offense struggled to protect Allen at times, but he was only sacked twice.

RUNNING INJURY: A

James Cook was unable to play due to a toe injury, but Davis came up big, rushing 20 times for 97 yards and also catching three passes for 55 yards. The Bills started the night with a 12-yard run by Ty Johnson, but very quickly he passed the baton to Davis and Johnson ended up with just four carries, although they managed 34 yards.

Allen threw for just 18 yards and a touchdown while the Jets did a great job scouting him to prevent his big problems. Of course, Allen delivered one of the biggest runs of the game when he held for six yards to convert a third-and-4 with 1:45 left, and the Bills were able to shut out the rest of the game.

The key to the overwhelming success was an outstanding performance by the offensive line, which ripped big holes in the Jets' stout defense. However, there were far too many penalties in this game, especially RT Spencer Brown, who was sent off four times.

Pass Defense: D

What happened at the end of the first half was so incredibly ridiculous that it defies explanation. How the Bills were able to allow Lazard to make the Hail Mary catch for the TD is beyond words. The Jets took over on their own 30 with 21 seconds left in the half and needed three plays to get into the end zone. Inexcusable.

Rodgers finished 23 of 35 for 294 yards with TDs to Lazard and Garrett Wilson, but he threw the game-winning interception to Johnson. Still, he made some big throws and Wilson finished with eight catches for 107 yards and Lazard finished with six catches for 114 yards.

Buffalo's safety play is an issue as Damar Hamlin and Taylor Rapp haven't been sharp. Even Johnson had some difficult plays in his return to action. On the outside, Christian Benford and Rasul Douglas played well, but some of Wilson/Lazard's performance was against them.

As for the pass rush, AJ Epenesa had two sacks, one of which was offset by a terrible passer tackle, although he only made one good tackle. Part of a terrible night for the boys in stripes. DaQuan Jones had the other sack.

RUN DEFENSE: C-

Breece Hall loves playing against the Bills. He ran through them for 113 yards on 18 carries, including a 42-yarder, and caught six passes for 55 yards. There were too many times when the Bills seemed to overwhelm the plays as he retreated through a gap, and he also ran through a few tackles.

The only other Jets to carry the ball was rookie Braelon Allen, but he was strangely underused and only had three attempts for eight yards, including one in the third quarter where he was stuffed at the 5 and the Jets wound up settled for a tying field goal.

Rapp and Johnson led the Bills with eight tackles, while Damar Hamlin and Dorian Williams had seven and Terrel Bernard had six.

SPECIAL TEAMS: D

Tyler Bass is credited with kicking the game-winning field goal with 3:43 to play, albeit from just 22 yards. Early in the game, he missed from 47 yards right and hit an extra point wide left, a kick so ugly that even the ESPN broadcast made fun of it. There are now some serious bass concerns if they weren't already.

Kaiir Elam called a holding penalty on a punt on which Brandon Codrington made a fair catch, forcing the Bills to start a possession at their own 10 in the second quarter.

Sam Martin made three punts and finished the game with a solid 43.7 net average as only one was returned, an eight-yarder by Xavier Gipson, the man who started the game at MetLife Stadium last year with a walk-off return -Touchdown won.

Former Jet Codrington had only one return chance, a 24-yarder on a kickoff.

COACHING: C

Had the Bills lost this game, the failure of the Hail Mary would have resulted in an F, but the Bills staff deserves some credit for the way the Bills bounced back in the second half and got the win. This game would have sent many teams into the ground, but the Bills pulled it off.

Defensively, Bobby Babich needs to sort out the safety situation, although it's pretty difficult to see a path forward considering the disappointing Mike Edwards – who was a healthy backup – and Cole Bishop are currently the backups alongside Cam Lewis.

On offense, Joe Brady did a good job in the first half as he recognized that the Bills' line was dominating the run game and he set up some nice plays for Davis. The passing game sputtered at times, but at least there was a little more action on the field.

Sal Maiorana has been covering the Buffalo Bills for four decades, including 35 years as a full-time beat writer for the D&C, and he has written numerous books on the team's history. He can be reached at [email protected] and you can follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana. https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast

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