Buffalo Bills' defensive woes exploited by New York Jets

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. -- The Buffalo Bills have played two games, and they've lost both in entirely different ways.

In Week 1, their offense could not have played worse and they fell to Baltimore 13-7. Thursday night in Week 2, they could not have played worse on defense and lost 37-31 to the New York Jets.

The takeaway: Two weeks into the season, neither unit is very good, and the Bills' playoff chances -- if one is being realistic about this roster and the difficult schedule -- are already shot.

"Shocked. You can definitely say that," outside linebacker Jerry Hughes said of a defensive meltdown that saw the Bills allow 28 first downs and 493 yards, including 374 through the air by Jets quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick. "We just didn't play good football today. Just bad all the way around. We just didn't show up."

The Bills looked like a semi-pro team on defense against the Jets. Fitzpatrick has had tougher days in 7-on-7 drills in training camp. No matter what the Bills tried on defense, the Jets had an answer, and they ended up scoring points on seven of 10 possessions.

"Their offense against our defense looked like a mismatch," said beleaguered coach Rex Ryan. "(Fitzpatrick) was hot and they were making plays. We couldn't do anything to disrupt them. I was afraid to pressure them because I was afraid we wouldn't hold up. We did everything, but to their credit, it never mattered what we played because they were the better team. Brandon Marshall told me he was going to kick my butt today and he was right, he did."

Yeah, he was right.

What was most disturbing about the defense was the play of cornerbacks Stephon Gilmore and Ronald Darby. If there was one segment of the unit that no one was worried about heading into the season, it was cornerback, but on Thursday, Gilmore and Darby were made to look foolish by Fitzpatrick and his receivers.

Talk about shocking, watching Gilmore and Darby get schooled time and time again had to be alarming for Ryan because if his cornerbacks can't cover, his defense crumbles.

"We had a rough day, no question about it," Ryan said, speaking both about the cornerbacks, and the defense as a whole. "Sometimes it's tough, sometimes they're put in some tough situations, but I think they'll bounce back. I feel great about those two guys, but we had a tough day today."

Ryan said all summer that his defense would be better than it was in 2015 when it underperformed terribly. But all along, it seemed like false bravado because there really wasn't any validity behind the claim.

Gone were Mario Williams, Nigel Bradham, Leodis McKelvin. Unavailable for the first four games is Marcell Dareus. And the top two draft picks, both of whom were slated to start -- Shaq Lawson and Reggie Ragland -- got hurt before the preseason, Ragland out for the year and Lawson for half the year.

There's no way this defense was better, and while it played well in Baltimore against a mediocre Ravens' offense, it was unmasked by the Jets.

"Obviously, I never expected this," Ryan said. "The Jets were a much better team than we were today, especially their offense against our defense looked like a mismatch. You look for a difference in the game, that was the difference in the game. We have to get a lot better."

REPORT CARD VS. JETS

--PASSING OFFENSE: B - After a terrible Week 1 performance, the Bills' offense produced several big plays in the passing game as Tyrod Taylor threw two beautiful deep TDs -- an 84-yarder to Marquise Goodwin, and a 71-yarder Greg Salas. However, there wasn't a whole lot beyond that as those plays represented 155 of Taylor's 297 yards passing. Again, Taylor looked incapable of using the middle of the field, and he couldn't find a way to get Sammy Watkins involved as Watkins caught two passes for 20 yards. A.J. Green caught 12 for 180 yards against this Jets' defense the week before.

--RUSHING OFFENSE: D - The offensive line didn't get overwhelmed the way it did against Baltimore, but still, the Bills -- the NFL's top rushing team in 2015 -- didn't do much damage on the ground. They finished with 86 yards, 59 from LeSean McCoy. And in the game's pivotal moment midway through the fourth quarter, the Bills couldn't gain a yard on third and fourth down and turned the ball over on downs as they tried a QB sneak up the middle and run by McCoy up the middle, both of which got stuffed.

--PASS DEFENSE: F - CB Stephon Gilmore might have watched his leverage for a big free-agent contract shrivel up as he played perhaps the worst game of his career. And on the other side, Ronald Darby was just as bad. Ryan Fitzpatrick literally played pitch and catch with Brandon Marshall and Eric Decker as those two receivers combined for 227 yards, most of that on Gilmore and Darby. Fitzpatrick finished with 374 yards and produced scores on seven of 10 possessions. The Bills' pass rush was non-existent, though much of that had to do with Fitzpatrick getting the ball out quickly to wide-open receivers.

--RUSH DEFENSE: F - The Jets moved the ball up and down the field, and it wasn't all through the air. Matt Forte carried 30 times for 100 yards and scored three touchdowns against a porous Buffalo defense. When the Jets needed to run, they ran, and the Bills could do nothing to stop it. Linebackers Preston Brown and Zach Brown did their best, and they had 16 and 14 tackles, respectively, but only two of those stops resulted in negative yardage, which tells you too many of those tackles were downfield.

--SPECIAL TEAMS: B - Brandon Tate had a nice 45-yard kickoff return and finished with 125 return yards. At this point, you have to wonder why Reggie Bush is even on the roster. He had no touches on offense or special teams. Punter Colton Schmidt had an average night, but he did drop one punt inside the 20. Dan Carpenter handled the kickoffs just fine and the coverage unit allowed just 13.4 yards per return. Carpenter also made all five of his kicks.

--COACHING: F - Rex Ryan may have just planted himself on the hot seat. It seems unlikely that he'd get fired this early, or at all during the regular season, but if his team doesn't turn it around, ownership may take a long look at moving on. Ryan's defense was embarrassingly bad against the Jets, and that's on Rex's scheme. He said he tried everything, but nothing worked. That's an indication of the talent level, which clearly isn't up to snuff. It was nice to see offensive coordinator Greg Roman remember that Tyrod Taylor could throw the long ball, but it was a shame that, like so many NFL coaches, his brain got in the way of his play-calling on too many occasions. It's baffling why NFL coaches insist on turning seemingly easy situations into difficult ones by over-thinking things.