Jets on the ground
The Bills' defense has allowed more than 122 rushing yards per game this year, and Shonn Greene's yards-per-game average has been decent since Week 7 despite the Jets being ranked 26th in the league in rushing. Greene will be expected to carry the bulk of the workload for the Jets Sunday, as LaDainian Tomlinson will likely sit out due to a knee injury. Jets coach Rex Ryan will be looking to his other backs to pick up the slack in terms of Tomlinson's presence in the backfield and on third down.
“Well, we always miss LT,” Ryan said Friday. “That’s a great player, does a great job in pass protection, as well as being able to run the ball and as a receiver. I thought Shonn could step in and Joe McKnight, so we feel OK with our guys anyway.”
Banged-up Bills
With Buffalo's best offensive weapon in running back Fred Jackson done for the season, the Bills will have to adjust their gameplan to get past the stingy Jets defense. Compounding the effort is the loss of wideout Donald Jones to Injured Reserve, which cut the already short list of healthy Bills receivers even shorter. In fact, with the news that Naaman Roosevelt will also miss Sunday's game with a shoulder injury, Ruvell Martin is the only Buffalo wideout not ailing, with David Nelson and Stevie Johnson both missing time this week in practice.
That will put even more pressure on backup running back C.J. Spiller to perform, as he takes the over the starting role for Jackson. Spiller has amassed 115 yards on the ground thus far, averaging 5.5 yards in his 21 touches. Spiller's obvious strength is his speed, though Bills coach Chan Gailey said Wednesday they don't expect to alter their game plan much to work around his effectiveness to the outside.
“He’s an explosive runner," Gailey told the media. "He’s a good cut-back runner. A lot of people think that we’ll run outside the whole day because he’s a fast guy, try to get him on the edge. That’s not necessarily the case. He can run up inside too. We won’t change it a lot.”
Can Fitz turn it around?
As the Bills aim to end a three-game losing streak and get back into the playoff hunt, they'll need quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick to step up and break out of his mid-season slump. In Buffalo's last three games (all losses), Fitzpatrick has thrown seven picks, only two touchdowns and is averaging just over a 49 quarterback rating. The Jets' secondary won't make it any easier for him, as it contributed to two of those interceptions three weeks ago in a 27-11 New York win.
“Defensively they matchup well with everybody because they’ve got good corners and they’re physical up front,” Fitzpatrick told the media Wednesday. “They’re hard to run on because of how physical they are because sometimes they’ll have an extra guy in the box, and they’re hard to throw on because their corners and DBs are so good. They present a lot of issues for a lot of teams.”
Expect cornerback Darrelle Revis to be all over Johnson, and with Jones done, Nelson will likely have to deal with Antonio Cromartie, unless Buffalo plans to keep Nelson in the slot where he has been most effective. Cromartie and Revis have combined for seven picks so far this season, and safety Jim Leonhard performed well three weeks ago inside against Nelson on the slant routes.
“The guy is a gamer, he’s a great athlete but we got great guys over here too,” Johnson said of Revis Wednesday. “I feel like my game is good enough to match up against his game so we’ll see what happens Sunday.”
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