Tremaine Edmunds was sitting alone on camera, waiting for his postgame video press conference to begin, when Jerry Hughes suddenly pushed his way into the frame.
This interview would be a team effort, just like their play on the field, but while the young star middle linebacker had another quiet outing, it was the veteran defensive end who came through with a game-sealing turnover to keep this Buffalo Bills season from spinning off the rails.
“What are the odds that you have a ball floating around in the D-line territory?” Hughes said. “So why not grab it, run around with it, try to score? Let’s have some fun. But certainly, got to get down so we can end that game.”
Hughes, 32, had his first two sacks of the season, a forced fumble and his first career interception, plucking the ball from midair after Quinton Jefferson deflected a Sam Darnold pass in the final minutes, to secure a stomach-churning, 18-10 comeback victory against the winless New York Jets on Sunday at MetLife Stadium.
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His interception with 1:16 remaining, which allowed Josh Allen to kneel out the clock, completed the Bills’ rally from a 10-0 deficit, as rookie Tyler Bass hit a franchise record six of eight field goal attempts to help the Bills (5-2) snap a two-game losing streak and sweep the season series with the Jets (0-7).
The Jets are as awful as their 0-7 record indicates. Let's not lose sight of that while trying to figure out what to make of the Bills' 5-2 record, writes Vic Carucci.
“Hats off to my dog Jerry, man. That’s a good play,” Edmunds said. “But I’ve got to make a play, simple as that. And I will, man. Opportunities are going to come, I’ve just got to take advantage of them and capitalize off of them.”
“He’s rubbing salt on a sore spot,” Hughes laughed about a reporter’s question.
“I know,” Edmunds said. “He is, he is.”
The Bills were fortunate to be in a jovial mood after back-to-back losses to the Tennessee Titans and Kansas City Chiefs, two of the top teams in the AFC, and a first half to forget against the Jets, one of the worst teams in the NFL.
Buffalo trailed 10-6 at intermission, but allowed a measly four yards on five possessions in the second half, the fewest yards surrendered by the Bills in a second half since at least 2000, according to the team.
Bills coach Sean McDermott called it a “character win.”
“We’re all human and confidence ebbs and flows through a season,” McDermott said, “but they stayed confident all week long. They had a great week of practice, they worked hard and they’ve been working hard. You saw the fruits of that labor today.”
Cole Beasley caught a career-high 11 passes for 112 yards in the Bills’ 18-10 victory.
Bills rookie cornerback Dane Jackson, who started his first career game a day after being elevated from the practice squad, had two pass breakups and sparked the defense’s turnaround with an easy interception in the final minute of the first half, snaring an errant pass from Darnold with 40 seconds on the clock, just enough time for the Bills’ offense to maneuver into field goal range.
“I was able to give the guys a boost,” Jackson said, spreading the credit around to his teammates. “It wasn’t all on me. Thanks to the D-line, thanks to everybody up front, everybody else on the defense doing their job. We all came together and I didn’t make it happen by myself.”
But McDermott made sure to heap praise on the young corner.
“Dane was ready,” McDermott said. “When his number was called, he was ready, and that’s part of being a team. We’ve got to continue to get contributions from these young players. That’s the strength of our football team as we continue to develop.”
The Bills need far more contributions across the board, from players young and old.
Hughes became the Bills’ second player since 1982, when sacks became an official stat, to record two sacks and an interception in a game, and the first since Cornelius Bennett against the Jets on Dec. 23, 1989. Hughes’ last interception was in 2008, when he was a junior at TCU.
That’s a fun statistic.
This one, not so much: Hughes has more interceptions this season than All-Pro cornerback Tre’Davious White and safeties Micah Hyde and Jordan Poyer combined.
“Obviously, we haven’t been playing well the past few weeks and so to come out here and hold a team to 10 points, you never want to say you’re satisfied,” Poyer said. “Obviously, there’s some things out there that we could have done better. But in the end, a win is a win. We’ll have some good tape to learn from, some good moments and situational football to learn from.”
They can start by taking a look at how Frank Gore averaged better than five yards per carry.
They should diagnose how the Jets were allowed to convert on third-and-20, with Darnold finding Braxton Berrios for a 22-yard gain.
They can continue by exploring how La’Mical Perine ripped off a 20-yard run; how White was called for pass interference, then was beat by rookie Denzel Mims for 16 yards; how Perine turned the corner and found the end zone for his first career touchdown and a 10-0 lead, the Jets’ largest of the season, midway through the second quarter. That all happened on one drive.
New York didn’t do much the rest of the way, totaling 25 yards on its final 23 plays.
Jay Skurski weighs in with his grades on the Bills' 18-10 victory over the Jets at MetLife stadium.
“We came out (in the second half) with a new objective, a new goal,” Hughes said. “We weren’t going to allow them any more points and we were going to try to do our best to get off the field, and when you challenge us like that, we answer that call. I was really happy to see us on the defensive side of the ball figuring out ways to get off the field on third down and going out there and just playing fast.”
The Jets were limited to 99 rushing yards and 91 passing yards overall, had 10 plays lose yardage and were just 2 of 8 on third down.
The Bills finished with six sacks, 10 quarterback hits and those two interceptions.
That’s terrific production against any NFL opponent, though the Jets certainly set a low bar. New York entered the game ranked dead last in the league in points per game, passing yards, third-down conversion rate and red zone offense.
“The second half kind of gives you a picture of how we want to be on defense,” Edmunds said. “Like Jerry said, the first half, we had to settle down. You’ve got to come ready to play every week, man, no matter who we’re playing. They had a couple good drives going. We just had to come in, regroup, talk as a defense and get things corrected. It’s a true testament to the guys we’ve got on this team.”
The Buffalo Bills had a kicking problem at about 1:30 p.m. Sunday.
That might be. But the entirety of the performance sure didn’t inspire confidence among the fanbase, given the caliber of the opponent, struggles the previous two weeks and the Bills entering one of the most challenging stretches of the season. The New England Patriots, Seattle Seahawks and Arizona Cardinals are on tap.
Poyer credited defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier and McDermott for making appropriate adjustments as the Bills, a franchise that’s relied on stout defense for years, continue to search for an identity. McDermott said the second half reflected a "Buffalo Bills style defense."
“Leslie and Sean started dialing up some pressures and we were coming strong, coming weak, trying to disguise as best we can to not give them the tell on where we were coming from,” Poyer said. “We had a couple free runners to get in Sam’s face and we made some huge plays down the stretch. I don’t know who tipped it out of his hand at the end but Jerry got the pick.
“That’s who we are, that’s who we want to be, so it’ll be good build off something like that.”
