ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Ryan Fitzpatrick is the $12 million win-now quarterback, obligated to pilot his win-now team through the turbulence and stick the landing.
He was, with apologies to Tom Hanks, Sully on Thursday night.
If the Jets, 37-31 winners over the Bills, harbor any hope of ending the Patriots’ seven-year stranglehold on the AFC East, these are the teams they have to beat and these are the games they have to win.
This was payback for Fitzpatrick. Payback to his team, and teammates, for throwing away a playoff berth with those three interceptions in the fourth quarter of the 2015 regular-season finale here.
Payback to Rex Ryan, who disoriented Fitzpatrick twice last season and has made a career of making him resemble a journeyman who never has gotten to the postseason.
Fitzpatrick was the kind of battlefield commander Ryan never previously had encountered. He made everyone around him better.
Rexorcism with America watching.
He was tough and smart and poised and fearless and slinging the ball accurately, even downfield, every step of the way and even tormenting his longtime tormentor with his legs.
“I just wanted to think less — don’t try to be perfect, don’t try to diagnose everything that he’s trying to do, and just play the game,” Fitzpatrick said.
They all love playing with him.
“He was on the money,” Brandon Marshall said. “I’m happy for him because a guy like that usually doesn’t get these opportunities late in their career, you know journeyman, and he deserves it. The game owes him. He’s put in a lot of work, and it’s time for him to reap the harvest.”
Fitzpatrick yawned at a time when the sky began falling on the Jets when the second half began.
In a matter of 3:45, Greg Salas had caught a 71-yard touchdown pass from Tyrod Taylor with Rontez Miles barely in the same area code, and Preston Brown had forced a Jalin Marshall fumble that Nickell Robey-Coleman returned 36 yards to pay dirt, and suddenly it was Bills 24, Jets 20, and New Era Stadium was howling.
“There was confidence in the huddle,” Fitzpatrick said. “That’s a good feeling as a quarterback, to have guys looking at you with confidence in their eyes.”
Fitzpatrick then hit Eric Decker with a 58-yard bomb … and had it nullified by a Ryan Clady holding penalty.
Then Brandon Marshall dropped a deep one at the Buffalo 42 on third-and-9.
Fitzpatrick responded this way the next time he had the ball: He completed 5 of 7 passes for 55 yards to five different receivers on an 84-yard touchdown drive that culminated in a 4-yard Matt Forte run that made it Jets 27, Bills 24 late in the third quarter.
And this way, following a Marcus Williams interception: He hit Jalin Marshall for 27 yards on third-and-9, then Decker for 35 yards, and soon it was Jets 30, Bills 24 with 10:40 left on the way to Jets 37, Bills 24.
Fitzpatrick, targeting Quincy Enunwa early, threw for 211 yards in the first half and rushed for 19 yards. He showed that Ryan, now 8-2 against him, was not in his Harvard head. Ryan sure was last season: Fitzpatrick was a combined 31-for-71 with four touchdowns and five interceptions in both 22-17 losses to Ryan and the Bills.
Marshall had announced his return immediately from what he first feared to be a season-ending knee injury in the second quarter with a 21-yard reception by the left sidelines against Gilmore.
Fitzpatrick then turned his attention to Decker with an 18-yard strike that set up a 5-yard touchdown pass to Decker, and it was Jets 20, Bills 7. Fitzpatrick had linebacker Zach Brown blasting him just as he released the ball.
“I have more confidence in myself than anybody else on this earth. I know that,” Fitzpatrick said.