ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — The Rexorcism is complete.
The Jets beat former coach Rex Ryan’s Bills 37-31 Thursday night at New Era Field to pick up their first win of the season and send Ryan and the Bills into an 0-2 hole in the AFC East.
Quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick was masterful, completing 24 of 34 passes for 374 yards and one touchdown, putting to rest the storyline that he can’t beat a Ryan-coached defense. He is now 2-8 as a starter against Ryan, who had no answers for Fitzpatrick or the Jets’ offense.
The Jets (1-1) had a 100-yard rusher, two 100-yard receivers and nearly a 400-yard passer.
“We’ve got an identity a little bit now,” said Matt Forte, who rushed for three touchdowns. “We know just how resilient we are as a team. A lot of crazy stuff happened in the game that if we were not a mentally strong team we could have gone in the tank. When stuff goes bad, coach [Todd] Bowles always says come back and punch them in the mouth. We did that as a team.”
The Jets beat Ryan, who was fired after the 2014 season by the Jets, after losing both meetings with the Bills in 2015.
Forte had 100 rushing yards on 30 carries and the three touchdowns. Wide receiver Eric Decker had six catches for 126 yards and a touchdown. Brandon Marshall overcame a first-half knee injury to go for 101 receiving yards on six catches. Quincy Enunwa was not far behind the Jets’ star receivers with six catches of his own for a career-high 92 yards. The Jets went 8-for-13 on third down.
“Our big-time players made some big-time plays,” Bowles said.
The Bills hit the Jets with a few huge plays, but never had sustained success. The Jets were clinging to a 30-24 lead late in the fourth quarter when the defense came up with the biggest stop of the night. Sheldon Richardson, back from a one-game suspension, stopped Bills running back LeSean McCoy on fourth-and-1. The Jets took the ball and marched down the field, the drive capped by Forte’s third score of the night to go up 37-24.
After the Jets dominated the first half, the Bills responded early in the second half with two big plays that put them back in the game.
On their first drive of the third quarter, the Bills went deep to former Jet Greg Salas for a 71-yard touchdown pass. Bills quarterback Tyrod Taylor kept the play alive and saw Salas streaking across the field behind backup safety Rontez Miles. That cut the Jets’ lead to 20-17.
The Bills then took the lead when Jets rookie wide receiver Jalin Marshall fumbled after a hit by Preston Brown. Bills cornerback Nickell Robey-Coleman scooped up the ball and went 36 yards for the touchdown to put the Bills ahead 24-20.
The Jets did not wilt, though, scoring the next 17 points to topple the Bills.
“I think last week I don’t think that’s an indication of what we’re going to be as an offense this year,” Fitzpatrick said. “I think today was a little bit more what we expect. The biggest part for me and the part I get excited about is going into halftime with the lead, coming out they put 14 points on the board right away … there wasn’t hanging heads and there was confidence in the huddle. It was a great feeling.”
The Jets regained the lead, 27-24, when Forte scored his second touchdown of the game, a 3-yard score that finished off a 12-play, 84-yard drive late in the third quarter. Nick Folk tacked on a field goal early in the fourth quarter to extend the lead to 30-24.
The Jets dominated the first half. The Bills hit one long pass, but that was about it. The Bills defense continually failed to get the Jets off the field.
In the first quarter, the Jets held the ball for 13 minutes and 35 seconds. The Jets opened the game with a 15-play, 65-yard drive that chewed up 8:19 off the clock. The star of the drive was Enunwa, who had two third-down catches, including a 34-yarder. They stalled in the red zone, setting for a Folk field goal.
The Bills responded with a huge play. Taylor picked on Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis on third down, throwing a deep ball to Marquise Goodwin for an 84-yard touchdown. The speedster went right by Revis, whose struggles from Week 1 continued.
The pass put the Bills up 7-3, but their offense faltered after that. They finished the half with just 175 yards, 84 coming on that one play.
The Bills ‘offense went dormant after that and the Jets put up the next 17 points and went into the locker room ahead 20-10.
The Jets ended a five-game losing streak against the Bills by making the big play when they needed to.
“The past couple of times we’ve played these guys there’s been a pivotal play in games and they’ve made them,” Bowles said. “This time we made them.”