Bills defense punches back with dominating performance against Jets

BUFFALO, N.Y. [WKBW] — Buffalo Bills linebacker Tremaine Edmunds said earlier in the week to be successful, sometimes you need to be punched in the mouth. During the first six weeks of the season, the defense was the punching bag, allowing 28 points per game. On Sunday against the Jets, they swung back.

After allowing 10 points to the Sam Darnold led Jets offense in the first 30 minutes of the game, the Bills pitched a shutout in the second half. After throwing for 116 yards in the first half, Darnold had just four in the second half.

"We were able to come in at halftime and really regroup," Jerry Hughes said after the game. "I think for us, figuring out how they were going to attack us, really helped us out. And then working with our coaching staff, everything really just fell perfectly into place in the second half."

Along with rookie kicker Tyler Bass, Hughes was the Bills MVP on Sunday. In addition to his two sacks, Hughes had five solo tackles and an interception to seal the win for the Bills.

"We came out with a new objective, a new goal. We weren't going to allow any more points and we wanted to do our best to get off the field. When you challenge us like that, we answer that call."

"They got back to playing Buffalo Bills style defense," head coach Sean McDermott added. "That was fun to watch."

As an offense, the Jets had -6 total yards in the second half. For linebacker Tremaine Edmunds, this was an opportunity to show the standard the Bills are accustomed to.

"The second half kind of gives you a picture of what we want to be on defense," Edmunds said. "In the first half, we had to settle down, they had a little success, but you know man, you've got to come ready to play every week no matter who you're playing. They had a couple good drives going, we just had to come in and regroup and talk as a defense to get things corrected and that's a true testament to the guys we have on this team, a lot of guys got after it today and it showed."

As a defense, the Bills had six sacks against the Jets. Not bad, when you consider they had just 11 in their first six games of the year. Going against a weak Jets team certainly helped inflate their stats but it was also a reminder of what the defense can accomplish when the pressure the quarterback.

"We got some huge stops today and huge takeaways in key moments of the game and you want to build off that and continue to create that identity," Jordan Poyer added. "Whether we're taking the ball away two or three times a game or we're getting off the field and they go for it on fourth down and we're stuffing them, so, we did some really good things to help us build moving forward."