Fitzmagic is back baby!
The former Bills quarterback, who played with the team from 2009-2012, went 0-2 versus his former club last year, the worst loss coming in Week 17 with a playoff berth on the line. After last year's, gut-wrenching loss, coupled with the heartbreaking Week 1 loss this year, Fitzpatrick was due for a bombastic statement. He did so, going 24-34 for 374 yards. It was arguably his best game as a Jet, just when they needed him the most.
The most impressive aspect of Fitzpatrick's game last night was how much he spread the ball around. Marshall, Decker and Enunwa each had at least 90 yards receiving. Even though all three receivers had monster games, only Eric Decker had a touchdown to show for it. The same goes for Fitz, but this was because of the workhorse force of power that was Matt Forte. After leading drive after drive of the Jets offense into the red zone, Forte played clean-up, racking up 3 short-range touchdowns to go along with his 100 yards on 30 carries. Last week, Fitzpatrick struggled to convert in the red zone. This week, the Jets settled for 2 field goals to start, but then converted on their next two drives, one a Forte carry and the other a 5-yard pass to Decker.
At one point of the game, Fitz completed 11 straight passes in a row; some of them beautifully thrown deep balls either down the field or on the sidelines. Not normally known as a great deep ball thrower, Fitzpatrick converted three 30-yard receptions to his top three targets. Going against the vaunted Bills defense and a defensive guru in Rex Ryan, Fitzpatrick made it look easy at times. He varied his play calling, switching between handing the ball off to Forte, throwing the ball short, lofting it deep and even throwing a couple bubble screens to great effect. He even ran the ball five times for 21 yards, one of them being a 10-yard run for a first down. He showed great versatility, something that should make Jets fans very excited for the rest of the season.
While the offense was clicking under the bearded leader, other facets of the team didn't excel. The front seven didn't impact the game much, allowing Tyrod Taylor plenty of time in the pocket, letting him scramble around and sling the ball downfield with relative freedom. This extra pocket time exposed the Jets secondary (namely Revis, again, who got exposed again on the deep ball), who its issues with the Bills receivers all night long.
On the upside though, rookie Middle Linebacker Darron Lee had his breakout game in the NFL. He was all over the field, recording tackles on LeSean McCoy and Greg Salas, to name a few. While the long balls were executed with efficiency, any midrange game was shot down by Lee and the Jets defense, who were all over the receivers once they caught the ball.
The Bills offense didn't have much time on the field, despite recording 31 points, leaving the Jets offense to command the game. And that they did, with Fitzpatrick directing the offense and setting the tempo of the game to perfection. His management of the game, combined with his near-perfect execution, led the Jets to their much needed victory.
The win ended a five-game losing streak against Buffalo and ended Rex's tormenting against him former team. Now with this important win behind them, the Jets have a long break until they travel to Kansas City and face the Chiefs. However, there is no doubt that Thursday night's win was a declaration by the Jets that they are legitimate playoff contenders. It's hard to argue that after what we saw in Buffalo.
