The power atop the A.F.C. has constantly shifted among 10 or so playoff-quality teams fighting for just seven spots, but each week the Buffalo Bills have made the most consistent case of being worthy of a top seed. That changed on Sunday with an eyebrow-raising 20-17 loss to the Jets in which Josh Allen’s options were decidedly earthbound.
Elsewhere in the conference, the Bengals finally found their footing in the ground game, perhaps a jump start that could change their rushing attack for the rest of the season.
The Jets’ front four was relentless against Josh Allen.
The Bills’ top-ranked offense had outpaced league M.V.P.s over a four-game winning streak, but was stunned by Zach Wilson and the Jets (6-3), who pulled to within a half game of the A.F.C. East lead with the win.
Allen took five sacks, a season-high, for 22 yards lost. The only other game this season in which Allen took more than two sacks was a Week 3 loss when the Dolphins sacked him four times on a whopping 67 dropbacks.
He dropped back about half as much against the Jets — 39 times — making the defensive effort that much more impressive. Rushing just four players, the Jets created quarterback pressure but still had defenders in coverage to swarm receivers Stefon Diggs (five catches, 93 yards) and Gabe Davis (three catches, 33 yards) enough to hold them without a touchdown catch.
The Jets’ success up front was three-pronged. First off, Coach Robert Saleh’s defense has the talent. Quinnen Williams has arguably been the best pass-rushing defensive tackle this year, non-Aaron Donald division. Williams does not pair alongside a star edge rusher, but the Jets have a deep rotation of high-quality players between Carl Lawson, John Franklin-Myers, Jermaine Johnson and Bryce Huff always ready to generate pressure.
Second, Saleh does a better job than almost any defensive mind in the league of scheming up twists, stunts, and other funky four-man looks to get free rushers while still only sending his base four guys up front. N.F.L. protections typically half-slide one way with the center and play man protection on the weak side, and the Jets are as deadly as anyone at abusing that man side of the protection. Combine those two factors with the same unrelenting energy Saleh injected into the 49ers when he coached their chaotic front, and the end product is a four-man rush that can deter one of the best quarterbacks in the league.
Don’t blame Davante Adams.
Suffice it to say receiver Davante Adams and the Raiders (2-6) haven’t had the season they thought they would when the team traded for Adams in March, reuniting him with his Fresno State teammate, quarterback Derek Carr. Despite their familiarity, Adams’s production has been a coin flip every week based on how defenses play him.
Las Vegas regularly sees two-high-safety coverages and a defenses that push extra help toward Adams, which means the Raiders absolutely have to capitalize on his few chances with single coverage. The volatility of those limited chances in a given week shows in the numbers. Adams has three games with less than 40 yards receiving, including last week’s 3-yard performance, and five games with at least 95 yards.
In a 27-20 loss to the Jaguars (3-6) on Sunday in Florida, Adams torched the Jacksonville secondary early and often, earning 10 catches, 146 yards receiving and two touchdowns.
Adams kicked off his two-score day with an easy one-on-one win over Jaguars cornerback Tyson Campbell. Though not a household name yet, Campbell’s speed and length have helped him excel on the perimeter this year as he’s taken a step into a true No. 1 cornerback role.
Campbell, a second-year player out of Georgia, still has his growing pains, though, and Adams exposed them. With 4 minutes 51 seconds left in the first quarter, Adams evaded Campbell’s press attempt at the line of scrimmage, pulling his chest away from Campbell’s arm while still driving up the field on his route. The whiff left Campbell a step behind the play, and Adams waltzed into the end zone as Carr laid a go ball right into his hands.
Adams’s second touchdown was a play designed just for him. With 11 minutes to go in the second quarter, the Raiders lined up in a condensed shotgun formation. Carr faked a handoff to the running back and another to receiver Mack Hollins coming for a faux end-around, pulling in all of Jacksonville’s second-level defenders. Jacksonville’s cornerback and safety failed to communicate who was supposed to trail Adams’s route, and both ended up staring at Adams running wide open into the end zone to put the Raiders up, 17-0.
In typical Raiders fashion, none of that mattered in the end. The defense collapsed and let a Jaguars team that is notoriously bad at finishing games this season come back in the second half. That’s becoming a pattern, as Las Vegas lost a heartbreaker in overtime of Week 2 after giving up a 16-point third quarter lead against the Cardinals, and couldn’t make use of a 10-point halftime lead over Kansas City in Week 5.
The Bengals’ running game is key to ‘keeping Joe Burrow clean.’
A year removed from a Super Bowl run, the Bengals (5-4) struggled in their first few games to restore the kinetic offense. Entering Sunday, Joe Burrow led the league in passing yards (2,329) and yards lost to sacks (196). That disconnect owed to a couple aspects of the offense: Coach Zac Taylor playing Burrow under center (he’s back to taking most of his snaps in shotgun), an offensive line that’s just as porous as it was in 2021, and a run game that had no identity.
Joe Mixon and the Bengals’ run game have been corralled all season. Before this week, Mixon averaged just 3.3 yards per carry and never once cleared the 100-yard mark.
But in a 42-21 win over Carolina on Sunday in Cincinnati, Mixon offered reminders of how special a runner he can be when he bounces to the perimeter. Two of Mixon’s four rushing touchdowns (he caught another, by the way) came from under-center looks, a rarity for the Bengals since Burrow prefers to operate out of shotgun.
On each of those scores, Mixon took a carry up the middle, saw nothing but disaster in front of him, and teleported to the perimeter to get by the Panthers’ loaded boxes.
Mixon’s final rushing touchdown was the best example. With 4:45 remaining in the third quarter, the Bengals got into a set with three tight ends from under center to run duo, a rushing play designed to get immediate double teams and plow forward through them. Duo is a downhill run, but two steps into taking the handoff, Mixon saw a Panthers linebacker fill the gap in front of him and immediately sidestepped to get out to the edge. Mixon made one tackler miss and raced for a 14-yard score.
The value of Mixon’s magic goes beyond the yards and touchdowns he put up. Burrow can play inside a clean pocket with Mixon running well from under center and making the Bengals’ offense more complicated to defend. Playing without his favorite target, receiver Ja’Marr Chase, Burrow connected with seven different Bengals and was sacked just once on 29 dropbacks before getting pulled for garbage time.
Maybe this is a one-off performance. Only time will tell. A turnaround has to start somewhere, though, and repeatedly mashing an otherwise solid Carolina run defense might be the breath of life the Bengals needed.
Around the N.F.L.
Dolphins 35, Bears 32
Chargers 20, Falcons 17
Vikings 20, Commanders 17
Lions 15, Packers, 9
Jets 20, Bills 17
Jaguars 27, Raiders 20
Patriots 26, Colts 3
Bengals 42, Panthers 21
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