Lift off: New York Jets prevail in battle against Buffalo Bills to seal first win of NFL season
Matt Forte scores three touchdowns to lead the Jets to a 37-31 victory over the Bills
Matt Forte scored three touchdowns and Ryan Fitzpatrick finally solved Rex Ryan’s defence, leading the New York Jets to a 37-31 victory over the Buffalo Bills on Friday morning (Hong Kong time).
Forte’s three-yard run put New York ahead 27-24 with 2:12 left in the third quarter. He sealed the win by patiently waiting for a seam to open before scampering into the end zone from 12 yards to put New York up 37-24 with 4:02 left in the fourth quarter.
Forte finished with 100 yards rushing, and the offseason free-agent addition became the 13th New York player to score three rushing touchdowns in a game.
Fitzpatrick finished 24 of 34 for 374 yards and a five-yard touchdown pass to Eric Decker.
In beating one of his former teams, Fitzpatrick also overcame the stinging memories of last year’s season finale, a 22-17 loss at Buffalo that eliminated the Jets from play-off contention. Fitzpatrick closed the loss by throwing interceptions on each of the Jets final three possessions.
The Bills (0-2) are suddenly reeling in Ryan’s second season as coach, and two years after being fired by the Jets.
Their offence sputtered in a 13-7 loss at Baltimore on Sunday, and now it was their defence that showed cracks against the Jets.
New York finished with 493 yards offence, 28 first downs and had seven drives cross midfield.
Bills quarterback Tyrod Taylor rebounded five days after he was limited to 111 yards passing against the Ravens.
Brandon Marshall caught Dan Carpenter’s onside kick.
The Jets scored on each of their first four possessions to build a 20-7 lead. Forte scored on a one-yard plunge, Fitzpatrick found Decker on the five-yarder and Nick Folk hit a pair of field goals.
The Bills rallied back to score on three straight possessions spanning half-time.
Dan Carpenter began the run by hitting a 39-yard field goal with 10 seconds left in the second quarter.
Then Buffalo scored twice in a span of 2:07 to go up 24-20. After Salas scored, Bills safety Nickell Robey-Coleman returned Jalin Marshall’s fumble 36 yards for a touchdown on the Jets next possession.
Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis got off to another tough start. After having difficulty covering Bengals receiver A.J. Green on Sunday, Revis was burned by Goodwin on his 84-yard touchdown catch. Goodwin burst past Revis up the right sideline at midfield and had two steps on him when he caught Tyrod Taylor’s pass in stride at the Jets 35 and ran it in.
Adding in Salas’ 71-yard TD catch and Taylor became Buffalo’s fifth quarterback to throw two 70-plus yard touchdown passes in the same game, and first since J.P. Losman did it in 2006.
Jets receiver Brandon Marshall proved to be a quick healer. It appeared as if he sustained a serious injury when his left knee twisted beneath him while cornerback Stephon Gilmore brought him down by the facemask in the second quarter. Marshall immediately grabbed his knee and lay on the field for a few minutes before getting up on his own.
Marshall returned for the next series and made an 21-yard catch after having his knee examined. The catch helped set up Decker’s five-yard touchdown catch which put the Jets up 20-7
The Bills honoured NFL career sacks leader and Hall of Famer Bruce Smith by retiring his No 78 during a half-time ceremony.
“I don’t know if I’m worthy or lucky enough for all this,” Smith told reporters before the game. He joins Hall of Fame quarterback Jim Kelly, whose No 12, is the only number the Bills have retired.
The game was the NFL’s first streamed live on Twitter as part of a $10 million-plus deal the social media company reached in April to deliver 10 Thursday night games through a mobile app. Twitter also announced its app will be available on Xbox One, Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV.
This is the second time the Bills have been part of a social media broadcast experiment. Last year, Yahoo averaged an audience of about 2.4 million viewers in broadcasting the Bills game against Jacksonville played in London.