“It’s a must-win game for us,” Jets wide receiver Santonio Holmes said. “We know what’s at stake right now. We have to come out firing just like we did against these guys the last game we played them.”
The Jets (5-5) host the Bills (5-5) at MetLife Stadium in a game New York coach Rex Ryan said marks the start of his team’s playoff push. It was only three weeks ago that the Jets won their third consecutive game by dominating the Bills 27-11.
Neither team has won since. Two bad losses by New York; three in a row for Buffalo.
“They’ve been in a little slump as well as we have,” Holmes said. “We know it’s another game on the schedule and they get paid just as well as we do, so they’re going to be ready to come out and put a real good stamp into our playoff chances right now. So we have to be on high alert right now.”
That’s for sure. But, so do the Bills. As far as both teams are concerned, their playoff chances depend on it.
“I think especially the last [few] weeks have been hard on us,” Bills quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick said. “The biggest thing for us is we’ve really fallen down early, fallen behind and taken big deficits. Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to come back from those.”
Fitzpatrick’s play has been one reason. Since signing a six-year, $59-million contract extension on Oct. 28, he has mostly struggled with four touchdowns and eight interceptions in four games following a terrific start. In Buffalo’s last three losses, the Bills have been outscored 106-26 – including a 35-8 thrashing at Miami last Sunday.
“Well we’re not playing the way we were playing earlier in the season and it’s not necessarily [Fitzpatrick], even though I think he believes he can play a little bit better than he has been playing,” Bills coach Chan Gailey said. “But we can all do better, every one of us can, me included. I watch him play and it seems like we’ve had a different offensive line in there each week for the last three or four weeks and it seems like we’ve had different receivers going out there each week, so it’s been hard on him.”
There will be some more of the same lineup shuffling this week for the Bills as running back Fred Jackson, their biggest offensive star, was placed on injured reserve with a broken bone in his lower left leg. That means the speedy C.J. Spiller will get more playing time in the backfield instead at wide receiver, where he has been lined up a lot this season.
“We lost a great player, but this season’s far from over,” Spiller said. “I’ve just got to elevate my game to a higher level. I’ve got to play at kind of a level that Fred was playing at. ...” Of course, we won’t replace him, that’s obvious. So we’ll just have to try our best and go out there and execute.
Andy Levitre struggled to replace the injured Eric Wood at centre, so Kraig Urbik will be moved to centre this week while Levitre slides back to his normal left guard position. Starting cornerback Terrence McGee and wide receiver Donald Jones were placed on injured reserve because of injuries, and starting safety George Wilson (safety), wide receiver Naaman Roosevelt (shoulder) and kicker Rian Lindell (shoulder) are sidelined for the game against the Jets.
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