As the Bills clinched the AFC’s No. 2 seed in blowout fashion, a 40-14 thumping of the down-and-out Jets, everything was coming up 17.
The Bills completed a total of 17 passes. Josh Allen, their franchise player, ended the game with 17 yards rushing. The Bills scored their first touchdown, you guessed it, on the 17th total play of the afternoon — scored none other by No. 17 himself.
Heck, even the weather stayed on theme. When the game began, the announced wind was blowing at 17 miles per hour.
And as the Bills concluded their No. 17 day with a touchdown pass in true Josh Allen style — a cross-body howitzer after he extended the play rolling to his right — the collective thoughts in Highmark Stadium were verbalized all as one.
With the Bills up 33-0, “M-V-P” bellowed throughout the stadium. Several offensive linemen waved their arms as chants started to form, asking them to grow louder. The fans in attendance heartily obliged.
Although it’s an award for only one person, all of Allen’s teammates have been invested in him winning it. The quarterback’s three touchdown, no turnover performance in only three quarters might be his final statement to MVP voters.
With the No. 2 seed sewn up, the Bills have little else to play for in Week 18 on the road against the Patriots. And if it’s Allen’s final game, his 2024 campaign ends with a fifth straight season accounting for 40-plus touchdowns, the best touchdown-to-turnover rate of his career, over 4,000 total yards and his third 13-win season as the team’s starter.
GO DEEPER
Bills secure AFC’s No. 2 seed with 40-14 blowout win over Jets: Takeaways
As the chatter grew louder from national pundits in favor of Lamar Jackson’s MVP case in the middle of the week, Bills head coach Sean McDermott had a statement of his own.
“Josh Allen’s the MVP,” McDermott said. “I’ve been around this league long enough to know, to see MVP’s for many years. What he has done on this team, in this organization, in this community — and no offense to anybody else — but I’ve got a hard time believing somebody has done more. I really believe that.”
Here’s what stood out from the Bills’ victory to secure home field through at least the first two weeks of the postseason.
A necessary statement game for the defense
Although they made it interesting in the early parts of the game, the Bills must be thrilled with how their defense responded after three straight games of allowing yards and points in bunches. It hit a low note last weekend against the three-win Patriots, with the opponents racing out to a 14-0 lead while continuing to move the ball. The Jets had been playing much better offensively in recent weeks, and they even had some success early on, but the Bills defense closed the door in the first half and then barricaded it the entire second.
The Jets moved the ball in bunches in their first two drives. Four plays gained 10 yards or more out of their first 16. On those first 16 plays, the Jets averaged 7.2 yards per play — an unsustainable rate for the Bills’ defense moving forward. But on both drives, even if they took the term to the extreme, the cliché bend-but-don’t-break Bills lived up to that reputation. On the first drive, they stopped the Jets on a 4th-and-1 attempt in Bills territory to force a turnover on downs.
On the second, with the Jets in the Bills’ red zone, defensive end Greg Rousseau’s long arms tipped an Aaron Rodgers pass into the air that fell right into defensive tackle Jordan Phillips’ breadbasket. The Bills escaped without yielding a single point either time.
BIG. PHIL. INT.
📺: @paramountplus & @NFLonCBS pic.twitter.com/y3l9OAmDLl
— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) December 29, 2024
The dominant portion of the afternoon began on the third drive. With the safety forced on that possession, the Bills’ defense put together an insurmountable lead, winning that scoring battle 2-0. In the second half, before Allen’s and Rodgers’ removal from the game, the Bills sacked Rodgers three times, picked him off, forced a fumble and allowed the Jets to gain only 32 yards on 17 plays — an average of 1.9 yards per play.
The Bills defense certainly still has large question marks remaining about them. How much will their penchant for allowing explosive plays against better teams hurt them in the playoffs? Is their run defense, which again showed signs of weakness, going to force the Bills into shootouts in the postseason? And can they rectify their third-down defense, which has gotten worse as the season has gone on? Those are answers we won’t have until the playoffs arrive. But at the very least, Sunday was what the defense needed. If the Bills rest their starters next week, they’ll be heading into the playoffs with far more confidence than they had following the Rams, Lions and Patriots games.
Amari Cooper gets going, but with one caveat
In recent weeks, the Bills have had trouble jumpstarting trade deadline acquisition Amari Cooper. Over the previous two games, Cooper was targeted only twice and caught only one pass for 10 yards. He had been held to under 15 yards in four of seven games active with the Bills, a concerning majority given the draft asset they gave up for him. While it wasn’t a massive outing, Cooper brought in three passes for 56 yards, including a highlight-reel 30-yard touchdown catch. After the game, McDermott said getting Cooper going was “huge” heading into the postseason. And although Cooper put up his third-best yardage total for a single game with the Bills, it did not come with a spike in his usage.
In fact, his time on-field was lower than it had been in any game since his Bills’ debut in Week 7. Including penalty plays against the Jets before Mitchell Trubisky and the second-team offense took over, Cooper took only 22 out of a possible 61 snaps — a snap rate of 36.1 percent. And it wasn’t due to getting checked for a concussion, as he was cleared before the next drive began and also took a snap three plays into that drive. Over his last six games, Cooper had snap percentages ranging anywhere from 45.7 to 53.3 percent. It remains to be seen if they are saving his role to grow in the postseason, but Cooper has been the fourth receiver in snap rate for several games in a row. That may just be how the Bills view him.
What a catch by COOP‼️
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— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) December 29, 2024
An eye on Matt Milano’s role and how the Bills handled it in his return
The last time the Bills had Matt Milano available was against the Lions, and his role had grown from his previous outings. In that game, Milano remained on the field for the vast majority of third downs until he left the game with an injury. That was different from his first two games after returning from the long-term injury, where he only played on first and second down before leaving the field in obvious passing situations. There was a key difference in that Lions game, as defensive back Cam Lewis, who had been the player substituting in for Milano on third downs, started the game at safety due to injuries to Taylor Rapp and Damar Hamlin. That led to some intrigue as to how the Bills would use Milano against the Jets now that Lewis no longer had to start at safety.
Although the Bills didn’t face many third-and-long situations early in the game, once they did, Milano returned to the same role against the 49ers and Rams. He took all the early-down work and stayed on the field for third-and-short plays. But when the Jets entered obvious passing situations, Milano left the field and was once again replaced by Lewis. That may have been a product of this being Milano’s first game back from a one-week absence with a groin injury. However, Lewis has played his bevy of roles this season well, to the point where the Bills view him as an asset to their defense. It would not be a surprise if, as long as the safeties and nickel corner Taron Johnson are all healthy, this trend continues into the playoffs — especially after the Bills had the amount of defensive success they did against the Jets.
A new twist at defensive tackle
The Bills have been tinkering with their defensive tackle group for much of the season. The mainstays are starters Ed Oliver and DaQuan Jones, but the Bills carry four additional players at the position on their 53-man roster in rookie DeWayne Carter, Austin Johnson, Jordan Phillips and Quinton Jefferson. Over the last four games, all four of those rotational players have taken a turn as a healthy scratch. In Week 14, it was Phillips, then Jefferson in Week 15. Last week against the Patriots it was Carter, and then Sunday against the Jets it was Johnson’s turn. McDermott said on Friday that part of the decision to make Carter a healthy scratch against the Patriots was in an effort to find their best five defensive tackles. However, what made the Johnson inactive decision interesting on Sunday is that it left the Bills without a true backup one-technique role — a critical component to run-defending.
So when the substitute defensive tackles entered the game, Carter lined up in the one-technique role on each snap, either next to Phillips or Jefferson. This is a big switch for Carter, as he has played the majority of his snaps this season as the three-technique. The film will reveal if it was a good idea or one the Bills need to leave alone for the playoffs, but it was obvious that the run-defending play from Johnson had been a bit uneven in recent weeks. If ever there was a time to figure it out, it was this week against a solid Jets rushing attack. That backup one-technique role is TBD until they get to the postseason.
Bills MVP: DE Greg Rousseau — The defense needed big plays with the Jets still in striking distance, and Rousseau’s tipped pass led to an interception in the first half. He followed it up with a sack in the second half that put the Jets into a dire 3rd-and-19, which became the team’s second interception. When Rousseau is on his game, the whole defense is better.
Bills LVP: No one — The Bills were out to a 40-0 lead before the Jets put together a scoring drive. It was utter domination in the second half.
Up Next: The 13-3 Bills head on the road to take on the 3-13 Patriots in the 2024 regular-season finale.
(Photo of Josh Allen: Gregory Fisher / Imagn Images)
