Week 6 Preview: Bills v. Jets

The Buffalo Bills (1-4) travel to the Meadowlands today to take on the New York Jets (3-2). The Jets, whose staunch defense bolted out of the gates leading the team to a 3-0 start, have stumbled in recent weeks losing two straight. Rookie QB Mark Sanchez finally cooled down and after throwing 3 interceptions two weeks against the Saints. We will see which team shows up for New York today – the one who led the AFC East after three weeks, or the one that has slipped since.

The Bills, on the other hand, have nowhere to go but up. After a gritty performance in Week 1 it has been nothing but disappointment in Buffalo, losing the last two weeks in a row to previously winless squads. There is no doubt that the pressure is on Dick Jauron right now as the Bills have won only 4 of their last 17 games.

Bills owner Ralph Wilson has repeatedly hinted that he will not be making any coaching changes mid-season, but did have the following to add regarding last weeks loss to the Browns, “Yesterday was so bad that it’s hard to make a decision right now. There’s not much I can say about (Sunday) except it was awful.”

There is some hope in Buffalo as injured players Paul Posluszny and Donte Whitner should be back in action and should serve as a critical injection to a defense desperately in need of a boost. Despite the various injuries that have plagued it, the defense has held up adequately and is not receiving the bulk of the criticism. That has fallen squarely on the offense.

The Bills have been outscored 71 – 20 in their last three games and their 77 total points on the year ranks third worst in the conference, only better than Cleveland (55) and Oakland (49). Not exactly the type of production the team was expecting given the signing of T.O., the tandem rushing attack of Lynch and Jackson, and Trent being in his third year.

Edwards is the first to admit that his performance has been below expectations and that the offense has been unable to execute down-field. “Honestly, it’s little things,” Edwards said. “The good teams don’t make those little mistakes, and we’re making the little mistakes which seems like way too often. And that’s what’s frustrating.”

Unless the Bills can fix some of those little mistakes today they will drop to 1 – 5 and extend the streak of consecutive losses to AFC East teams to 9.