Buffalo Bills vs New York Jets: Three Keys to the Game

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EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ – JANUARY 01: Preston Brown /

Contain the Jets’ Running Backs

While I’m actually a Josh McCown fan, this offense runs through its running backs.

Don’t sleep on Matt Forte and Bilal Powell because they’re both above-average NFL running backs.

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Forte has never finished outside of a top-21 running back in fantasy each year of his career and Powell was the Jets most-productive running back last season and finished his 2016 campaign with a bang. He rushed for 122 yards in the season-finale against the Bills.

While Buffalo’s best defensive unit is its defensive line and middle linebacker Preston Brown had a strong camp, the Bills struggled to stop the run at times last season. Remember Le’Veon Bell and Jay Ajayi? Yeah, that can’t happen against the Jets, too.

In fact, The Buffalo News’ Mark Gaughan cites the Jets’ offensive line vs. the Bills’ defensive line on of the key matchups in Sunday’s tilt.

"“The best aspect of the Jets offense is the running back tandem of Matt Forte and Bilal Powell,” Gaughan writes. “Can those two get going behind an offensive line that is not athletic? New York figures to run a lot of inside zone plays. New center Wesley Johnson doesn’t have the power at the point of attack that departed Nick Mangold had. He’s a good matchup for Marcell Dareus. The guards (James Carpenter and Brian Winters) aren’t bad. But new right tackle Brandon Shell had trouble with the speed of Jason Pierre-Paul in preseason. And left tackle Kelvin Beachum, a former seventh-round pick, had issues with the Giants’ speed, too. Jerry Hughes should be effective.”"

If the Bills can win the battle in the trenches, they’ll be one step closer to a season-opening win.

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