Buffalo Bills @ New York Jets
Final Score: Bills 30, Jets 10
Writer: Raymi Chavez
A sunny day in East Rutherford was met with a divisional matchup between the Bills and the Jets. After a Week 1 that saw both teams marching up and down the field, an explosive game was expected. In the first half, it seemed the Jets had not received the memo. The game was a lot closer than the 30-10 scoreline would suggest, but costly penalties at crucial moments allowed the Bills to extend drives and the Jets to shorten them. Six negative plays and a Justin Fields fumble put the Jets in a big hole that they would not recover from. The Bills just had to go through the motions in the second half, as the most notable moment came on a Fields sack that led to him leaving the game for a concussion evaluation and not returning.
One Up
- James Cook – Cook was the star of this game, knifing through the Jets’ defense with ease and punctuating his day with a stunning 44-yard touchdown.
Three Down
- Justin Fields – The Justin Fields experience took a massive nosedive. He looked nothing like the quarterback we saw last week against the Steelers.
- Breece Hall – A rough game for Hall, which can mainly be attributed to the Jets’ game script. This will be the rollercoaster you expect with a New York Jets offense.
- Khalil Shakir – The Bills emphasized the run game, but even when they did pass, Shakir was invisible.
Buffalo Bills
Quarterback
Josh Allen: 14/25 148 Yards | 6 Carries, 59 Yards
Another dominant performance for Josh Allen and the Bills. Unfortunately, with three rushing touchdowns and a massive lead, it didn’t create many fantasy opportunities for Allen. He managed the game really well, with his only mistakes being a couple of intentional groundings when trying to avoid a sack; luckily, that doesn’t show up in fantasy football. He left the game for two snaps in the first half with what appeared to be a nosebleed, possibly a broken nose, but it didn’t impact him, and I doubt it will moving forward.
Mitchell Trubisky: 1/2 32 Yards | 3 Carries, -3 Yards
Came in while Allen was dealing with a bloody nose and threw a dime to Joshua Palmer for 32 yards. Came back in for some garbage time in the fourth quarter and did not throw any dimes.
Running Back
James Cook: 21 Carries, 132 Yards, 2 TD, Fumble (Recovered) | 1 Target, 1 Reception, 3 Yards
What a game from James Cook. He was dominant from start to finish, averaging 6.3 yards per carry. Cook was the straw that stirred the drink today. He seemed to phase through the second level of the defense during his monster 44-yard touchdown. He dominated the snap count (35) until the fourth quarter, when the rest of the RB room took over.
Ray Davis: 9 Carries, 24 Yards
Davis split the rest of the RB snaps (20) with Johnson after Cook took a seat, and he had one impressive run, but otherwise was ineffective.
Ty Johnson: 2 Carries, 6 Yards | 1 Target
Was used as the third-down back more often than Davis when there was relevant offense being played. He also didn’t impress with the snaps (19) he received towards the end of the game.
Wide Receiver/Tight End
Keon Coleman: 3 Targets, 3 Receptions, 26 Yards
Coleman ran 20 routes on 38 snaps, and this wide receiver room really saw the ball spread out. The game plan was heavily focused on the run game, and so all receivers took a hit, but Coleman stood out from the rest as he seems to be building a great rapport with Allen.
Dalton Kincaid: 6 Targets, 4 Receptions, 37 Yards
Kincaid was Allen’s favourite target all game long. It seems like all the excitement over Kincaid’s potential breakout season last year was just one season premature. He ran the second most routes with 20 and saw the most targets of any pass catcher on the Bills.
Joshua Palmer: 3 Targets, 2 Receptions, 47 Yards
Palmer ran the most routes with 21, but had a balanced snap count with Kincaid, Coleman, and Shakir. He really didn’t stand out beyond a 32-yard catch and run with Mitchell Trubisky in the second quarter. Still have a lot of questions about his fantasy relevance at this point.
Khalil Shakir: 2 Targets, 1 Reception, 12 Yards
This was a very disappointing game for Shakir. The breakout pass-catcher from last season struggled to make any impact in this game. He’s earned a little bit of the benefit of the doubt after his performance last season, but Coleman + Kincaid emerging and Palmer’s arrival may have damaged the fantastic floor he had from last season.
Dawson Knox: 5 Targets, 2 Receptions, 19 Yards
Knox had a minimal impact on the game, but did run the fifth most routes on the team. The Bills will feature a lot of 12 personnel formations, and that means Knox remains a TD-dependent boom or bust streaming option.
Elijah Moore: 1 Target | 2 Carries, 6 Yards, TD
Moore had two end-arounds designed for him and was able to take one of them into the endzone against his old team—clearly, the sixth option in the pass game, Moore doesn’t factor into the fantasy equation.
Jackson Hawes: 1 Target, 1 Reception, 5 Yards
Tyrell Shavers: 2 Targets
New York Jets
Quarterback
Justin Fields: 3/11, 27 Yards | 5 Carries, 49 Yards, 2 Fumbles (1 Lost, 1 Recovered)
An absolutely horrendous performance from Justin Fields was mercifully ended with a concussion evaluation, which was later confirmed. He was terribly inaccurate, as none of his incompletions were drops; they were simply bad throws. He moved off his first reads far too quickly and resorted to running far too early and often. Fantasy owners will most likely be experiencing this kind of roller coaster experience all year long.
Tyrod Taylor: 7/11, 56 Yards, TD | 3 Carries, 21 Yards
Taylor unexpectedly got thrown in to end the fourth quarter, and while he didn’t wow, he was steady, and the Jets’ offense looked its best with him out there. With Justin Fields sustaining a concussion, we may see Tyrod next week. If that’s the case, I would say the floor of the offense will rise, but the ceiling will fall dramatically.
Running Back
Breece Hall: 10 Carries, 29 Yards | 3 Targets, 2 Receptions, 9 Yards
Reports of Breece Hall‘s snapshare demise were wildly inaccurate, as he saw three times as many snaps as the next Jets running back, Isaiah Davis. He wasn’t effective, but then again, no one really was. Hall is wildly talented, but as long as he is a part of a struggling offense, his upside is capped.
Braelon Allen: 2 Carries, 11 Yards | 1 Target
Allen saw the least amount of snaps, but the second most carries. The team seems to like using Allen in the red zone, and the Jets didn’t get to the red zone until the last three minutes of the fourth quarter. He’ll continue to be heavily touchdown dependent.
Isaiah Davis: 3 Targets, 1 Reception, 6 Yards
Davis saw the second-most snaps in the running back room, but almost exclusively on passing downs. He was as impactful as the rest of the Jets offense (as in not at all).
Wide Receiver/Tight End
Garrett Wilson: 8 Targets, 4 Receptions, 50 Yards
Garrett Wilson was the only player on this offense to even have a slightly mediocre day in fantasy. He was open far more often than the stat line shows, but Justin Fields couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn. Wilson was always going to be a worrisome player in fantasy due to the quarterback situation, and that will continue regardless of who starts next week.
Tyler Johnson: 1 Target
To highlight the Jets’ passing offense, Tyler Johnson ran the most snaps and ran one fewer route than Wilson. No one on this Jets pass offense beyond Wilson is relevant.
Mason Taylor: 2 Targets, 1 Reception, 5 Yards
Taylor saw his targets once Tyrod Taylor took over, and I think at this point, if I were a Taylor owner, I would feel better with Tyrod at the helm.
Arian Smith: 2 Targets, 1 Reception, 8 Yards | 1 Carry, -10 Yards
Aaron Glenn and the Jets offense tried to feature Smith in this offense with a couple of designed plays his way. The plays broke down horribly, and he ended up losing more yards than he gained.
Jeremy Ruckert: 1 Target, 1 Reception, 5 Yards, TD