Report Card: Second-half adjustments lead to solid defensive grades

RUNNING GAME: B

It was another tough day for Devin Singletary, who didn’t get his first carry until midway through the second quarter and finished with just 29 yards on eight carries – an average of 3.6 per rush. When the Bills wanted to run the ball late, rookie Zack Moss got his number called. Moss rushed three times for 9 yards on the Bills’ penultimate drive. He finished with seven carries for 47 yards, including a 26-yard gain. Like he did in the season opener, quarterback Josh Allen ran a lot, gaining 61 yards on 11 carries. Allen picked up six first downs on nine rushing attempts, excluding two kneeldowns at the end of the game. Isaiah McKenzie’s lone rushing attempt ended in disaster – a loss of 11 yards on a failed jet sweep.

PASSING GAME: C

Allen finished 30 of 43 for 307 yards, completing passes to eight receivers. He threw two passes in the first half that probably should have been intercepted. He was also sacked twice, one of which resulted in a lost fumble. Allen’s longest completion of the day – 38 yards to tight end Tyler Kroft – might have gone for a touchdown had the throw not forced Kroft to leave his feet to make the catch. Cole Beasley was a boss. Without John Brown in the lineup, Beasley caught 11 of his 12 targets for 112 yards. Rookie Gabriel Davis had a touchdown catch wiped out by penalty. He finished with one catch for 11 yards. Moss had three catches for 25 yards, while Singletary chipped in two for 18 yards.

RUN DEFENSE: B

Had this grade been written at halftime, it would have been a big, fat ‘F.’ Old friend Frank Gore ripped off 5.8 yards per carry in the first half – an unacceptably high number for a 37-year-old. That included three carries for 26 yards on New York’s opening possession, which resulted in a field goal. As a team, the Jets gained 82 yards on 10 carries in the first half. The lone highlight for the run defense in the first half came when defensive linemen Quinton Jefferson and Jerry Hughes teamed up to stop running back Lamical Perine for a loss of 1 yard on a fourth-and-1 carry inside the Bills’ red zone. After a 13-yard gain by Gore on his first carry of the second half, the run defense locked things down. Gore’s next two carries went for just 1 yard.

PASS DEFENSE: A

Like the run defense, there were a few shaky moments against Jets quarterback Sam Darnold in the first half, but those got squared away at halftime. Actually, right before halftime. Rookie cornerback Dane Jackson’s first career interception came at an opportune time, ending a New York drive with the Bills trailing 10-3. Darnold never bounced back. His final numbers – 12 of 23 for 120 yards and two touchdowns – look ugly. Perhaps appropriately, with Halloween less than a week away, he was seeing ghosts in the second half. The Jets had no answer for Hughes, who finished with a team-leading six tackles, two sacks, one interception and one forced fumble. The Bills’ pass defense racked up six sacks, 10 quarterback hits and six passes defensed. A week after being a healthy inactive, defensive end Trent Murphy had a half sack and two quarterback hits.

SPECIAL TEAMS: B

It was a wild day for rookie kicker Tyler Bass, who went 6 for 8 on field goals. His 40-yarder in the fourth quarter that extended the Bills’ lead to 18-10 was clutch. The team says it has confidence in Bass, but that might not be shared by fans just yet. Return man Andre Roberts once again did a solid job in giving his team quality field position. Roberts opened the second half with a 58-yard kick return and had 23 yards on three punt returns. Both Siran Neal and Taiwan Jones, the Bills’ two gunners, took holding penalties that hurt the field position Roberts had provided.

COACHING: B-

Sean McDermott called it a “character win.” Fair enough. If the Bills’ season gets back on track, we’ll look at this game as the end of a two-game losing streak and a much-needed division win. Let’s be honest, though. This wasn’t pretty. The Jets stink out loud. Even as the injuries piled up and the Bills had to deal with their first Covid-19 case of the regular season Saturday to tight end Dawson Knox, a convincing win over the Jets shouldn’t be too much to ask. This wasn’t that. Penalties were still a huge problem. The Bills were flagged a whopping 11 times for 106 yards. Time after time, the team failed in the red zone, going a mind-numbing 0 for 5. McDermott had to blow a timeout in the first quarter, which impacted the team’s approach to its final drive of the first half. Like with the rest of the team, things got better in the second half. Defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier dialed up a good deal of blitzes out of the secondary, with Tre’Davious White, Dean Marlowe and Jordan Poyer accounting for a pair of sacks. After a season in which the pass rush has struggled to get home, it was good to see some creativity.