It is officially gameday for the Buffalo Bills. They will take the field on Monday Night Football for a divisional matchup against the newly revamped New York Jets, who will be coached by interim head coach Jeff Ulbrich. Both Buffalo and New York have pressure in their faces and they need to get a win on primetime.
The Bills have been embarrassed the last two weeks. In Week 4 against the Ravens, the entire team fell apart and the Ravens easily handled the Bills from start to finish. Then in Week 5 against the Texans, the Bills were decimated by injuries on defense (but still managed to keep the Texans to 23 points), and the offense was horrendous in all aspects.
Now Buffalo is sitting at 3-2, when they should be 4-1 after coming back from a 20-3 deficit last week. Their offense has to find a way to overcome this ferocious Jets defense, while the Bills’ defense has to make sure that Aaron Rodgers and the offense don’t get anything going.
One factor that Bills fans should be strongly concerned about is how the run-defense has been bad this season. They have given up no less than 92 rushing yards per game this season and have three games of letting up 120+ yards on the ground. However, new Jets interim head coach Jeff Ulbrich may have just gifted the Bills an advantage when it comes to stopping the run.
Jeff Ulbrich wants to focus on a run-first offense on Monday Night Football
According to Jay Glazer, Ulbrich said that he is looking to run the ball heavily on Monday night.
Glazer: Jets interim HC Jeff Ulbrich committed to run-heavy offense.
— Underdog NFL (@Underdog__NFL) October 13, 2024
Even though the Bills have not been successful at stopping the run, this comment by Ulbrich should really help out Bobby Babich and the defense as to how they want to stop the Jets’ offense. Especially with Ed Oliver being out for the second consecutive game, Babich could use any kind of advantage.
Fortunately for the Bills, the Jets have not been great at running the ball. Running back Breece Hall only has 197 yards through five games and the Jets overall have only rushed for over 100 yards twice this season. The way that this is setup, either Buffalo is going to improve their run-defense or the Jets are going to repeat their performance that they had last season in Week 1 against the Bills where Hall rushed for 127 yards alone.