The Jets have had a week and a half to think about suffering two losses in the span of 96 hours. On Sunday, they'll take the field against the depleted Bills, who started the season as a surprise but now have regressed into the hapless team that has resided in Buffalo for the past 10 years.
The Jets trail the Patriots by two games in the AFC East. If they make it to the playoffs, they'll probably enter as a wild card (thanks to the tiebreaker, they would need to play three games better than New England over the season's final six weeks). But with only two berths available, the Jets are hardly assured of the playoffs' back door.
If the Jets lose to the Bills on Sunday, they should take it as a sign that they should not play in January. Buffalo has been routed by the Cowboys (understandable) and the Dolphins (not so forgivable) the past two weeks. The week before that, the Jets destroyed them in Buffalo. Fred Jackson, the Bills' best player, is out for the season with a broken leg. Sunday starts a stretch of favorable games for the Jets—of their opponents, only the Giants have a winning record—but they can't afford to lose at home. They probably won't.
