Just as they were riding sky high, the Jets hit a rude speed bump and dropped a 31-13 game at home to the Buffalo Bills. With a pair of defensive mistakes, the Jets allowed two big-play Bills touchdowns, and despite a field goal right to give them some momentum at the end of the first half, the Jets didn't score again in what will likely prove to be a disappointing loss.
Willis McGahee, a tailback who's hurt the Jets before, scored on the first of the big plays, a 57-yard touchdown that saw the Jets miss several tackles. Then came Lee Evans' 77-yard reception, a play in which the New York secondary could not have looked more foolish. For a team that has thrived by not making costly defensive mistakes, those two scores were out of character for the Jets.
Add the Jets' impotent second-half offense to those first-half stumbles, and you get the Jets' disappointing loss. Why is it disappointing? Because the Jets now fall a game behind the front-runners for the wild-card playoff spots. By teasing their fans with last week's rout of Green Bay, the Jets made this week's loss even tougher to swallow.
Photo of Willis McGahee scoring a touchdown in the 1st quarter by AP/Bill Kostroun
