Conservative play by the offense doesn't hurt in big division win.
by Steve Saslow
Here are our position by position grades:
Quarterback:Kyle Orton played well in spurts and made enough plays to lead the Bills to a comfortable victory. He threw a career high tying four touchdown passes thanks to some short fields and two long passes to Sammy Watkins. He also never turned the ball over.
Grade A: Solid win as Orton goes to 3-1 as the starter.
Boobie Dixon ran hard into the teeth of the Jets defense up the middle. They were definitely signs that he was tiring them out as the game progressed. He had 44 very tough yards on 22 carries for a paltry two yard average.
Bryce Brown didn't do much better against this great run defense with just 15 yards on 7 carries.
Frank Summers he scored from two yards out on his lone carry.
Grade F: Will like seeing this duo against a defense not as tough against the run.
Sammy Watkins had just three catches but boy did he make two of them count. His 84 yard catch was great, his premature celebration was not. He better learn his lesson very quickly from that play. It did lead to a score. His 61 yard catch and run was a play we have been waiting for and saw so many times in Clemson.
Robert Woods made two huge catches on the Bills opening touchdown drive including a sensational 22 yard touchdown catch and a 25 yard reception earlier. He would catch just one other for three yards the rest of the way as he was hampered with a back injury. A shame because he seemed to be part of the game plan early.
Chris Hogan wasn't a big part of the game plan this week catching the only throw his way for 14 yards unfortunately it came on a 3rd and 15 play.
Scott Chandler had one catch but it was a nice 12 yard reception in the end zone for a score. He was called for a penalty.
Lee Smith had two catches including a nice grab of a bullet in the end zone for a one yard score.
Grade B: Made some big plays but were not involved as much as this unit should have been in this game plan.
Grade C: Gave up four sacks and paved the way for little real estate on the ground. Orton did have time to throw to make some big plays and there were no costly penalties from this group.
Defensive Line:Mario Williams had a nice tackle from behind on a read option run and shared a sack with Kyle Williams.
Jerry Hughes was very quiet not showing up on the stat sheet. He did seem to pressure Vick out of the pocket once.
Jairus Wynn knocked down a pass at the line of scrimmage. Showed great recognition seeing Vick kept the ball on one play and made the tackle for no gain. He also had a sack as he continues to get more deserved playing time.
Corbin Bryant had a beautiful strip sack.
Stefan Charles recovered the Bryant forced fumble and it setup a Bills field goal.
Marcell Dareus was very quiet this week with just one tackle and a quarterback hit.
Kyle Williams had a nice strip sack of Vick but got banged up on the play. He would come back and spend a lot of time in the backfield finishing with 1½ sacks.
Grade A-: Another day, another four sacks from this unit.
Brandon Spikes didn't do much as he was not on the field much with the nickel defense spending most of the time on the field.
Nigel Bradham called for a taunting penalty after Gilmore's first quarter pick costing the Bills 15 yards. He was then called for a false start when the Bills were forced to punt instead of trying for a field goal because of the taunting penalty. He then couldn't bring Vick down on a third down scramble for a first down. He then got called for hands to the face of the quarterback for three crucial penalties in the first half. He had one more penalty in him in the second half for unsportsmanlike conduct. He did have a team high 11 tackles and forced a fumble.
Preston Brown continues to improve by leaps and bounds every week. He had nine tackles and a nice interception.
Grade B: Made the big plays but did allow long runs by Vick and Harvin as the Jets got a very quiet but astonishing 175 yards on the ground.
Stephon Gilmore had a nice open field tackle keeping the Jets from getting a first down on their opening possession. He then picked off Smith on the second possession. He had five tackles.
Leodis McKelvin had a near interception late in the game.
Corey Graham was in on five tackles.
Nickell Robey had a big game nearly coming up with two interceptions and finishing with seven tackles.
Aaron Williams had a big interception that was returned to the one yard line setting up their second score.
Duke Williams had a nice fumble recovery.
Da'Norris Searcy picked off a pass and returned it 32 yards setting up a touchdown.
Grade A: Allowed just 20 completions for 158 yards and had three of the four interceptions.
Colton Schmidt dropped four punts inside the 20 and had a 37.8 yard net on six punts with a 41.5 yard average.
Dan Carpenter hit all three field goals including a 53 yarder and kicks from 36 and 29 yards out. He did miss a meaningless extra point late in the game.
Leodis McKelvin returned three punts for 42 yards including a nice 24 yard return. He had two kickoff returns for 19 yards.
Coverage Units Randell Johnson made a great open field tackle on Percy Harvin on the 2nd kickoff at the nine yard line. Harvin had a 24 yard average on six returns but many were brought out from deep in the end zone. They only allowed Jeremy Kerley one yard on two punt returns.
Grade A: Did enough to help with the win.
Doug Marrone should get credit as the team finished the game hard and going into the bye week at 5-3.
Nathaniel Hackett got ripped all game long on twitter and rightfully so. They were way too conservative running the ball too much when the game was on the line, into the strength of the Jets defense instead of challenging the weak secondary more. They did challenge enough for two big plays to Watkins.
Jim Schwartz did a magnificent job rotating defensive linemen in and out every few plays with considerable success.
Grade A: Big road win against a division opponent now 2-1 in the division and 3-1 on the road.
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