Habit of surrendering long runs bites Bills again in loss to Jets

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — The three tight ends on the left side of the line should have been a red flag.

When Breece Hall took the handoff at his own goal line, the Buffalo Bills defense moved to the right. Hall went left, where five New York Jets blockers only had two block two defenders, and cornerback, Tre’Davious White — the last line of defense, whiffed on a tackle.

Hall raced 83 yards until Christian Benford finally brought him down.

On paper, the Jets gashed the Bills for 172 yards rushing and averaged a whopping 6.1 yards per attempt. But take away that run and Buffalo surrendered 3.3 yards per carry on the remaining 27 attempts.

The only problem is the Bills can’t take away that run. It happened and it led to what turned out to be a critical field goal in a 22-16 loss in the season opener Monday at MetLife Stadium.

“We were out of our gaps there on that long run,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “We had an eight-man front defense. We were misaligned a little bit there and that’s something we’ll learn from.”

But is it something the Bills will learn from? Because it has been a reoccurring trend over the last three years. They stop the run all game, only for an opponent to reel off a big run at a critical juncture of the game.

Since the start of 2021, the Bills have allowed five runs of more than 50 yards. All occurred in one-score games, each run led to points and Buffalo lost four of those five games.

In those games, the Bills gave up 875 yards on 6 yards per carry, but without those runs the numbers decrease to 504 yards on 3.6 yards per attempt.

“We’ve got to do a better with our run fits, that’s all,” Bills defensive end Greg Rousseau said. “It’s not really specific Buffalo Bills defensive problem with stopping the run. I mean, every now and then they’re gonna hit a big run. He’s got to keep it to a minimum.”

Even more than points, when the Bills give up a long run, it has often come at a time when the opposing offense was struggling. In 2021, the Tennessee Titans mustered 29 yards on 12 plays when Derrick Henry broke loose for a 76-yard touchdown run and ended up scoring points on their next two drives of the first half.

When current Buffalo running back Damien Harris rattled off a 64-yard touchdown run later that season during a windy Monday Night Football game, the New England Patriots had 9 yards on eight plays. It was New England’s lone touchdown in a 14-10 win.

The Bills were on the verge of running the Minnesota Vikings out of Highmark Stadium when current Jets running back Dalvin Cook took of for an 81-yard touchdown run last season. Buffalo led 27-10 and the Vikings had 62 yards on 19 plays over their previous four drives, but Cook’s touchdown sparked a Minnesota rally that it capped with a 33-30 overtime win.

It was a similar story Monday. The Bills led 3-0, and although Josh Allen had just thrown a bad interception, the Jets took over at their own 4-yard line with little reason to believe they could drive 96 yards.

Aaron Rodgers left with an ankle injury — New York coach Robert Saleh said after the game it was an Achilles injury that “didn’t look good” — and backup Zach Wilson came into the game with 15 career touchdowns and 18 interceptions. And he only finished with 140 yards passing for the game.

At that juncture, the Bills pass rush was bothering New York, with two sacks — including Leonard Floyd’s sack of Rodgers that injured him — and a first-down pass would have stunned everyone in the stadium. Four of New York’s 11 plays resulted in negative yardage, save for Hall’s 26-yard run on its first offensive snap of the game.

Still, the Bills didn’t adjust to the Jets’ three-tight end formation and never had a chance of stopping Hall — who finished with 127 yards on 10 attempts — once the ball was snapped.

“I think it’s just locking into the details of the defense and everybody doing their 1/11th,” said Terrel Bernard, who made his first career start at middle linebacker. “All it takes is for one guy to be out of the gap or something to happen and these offenses and these backs are good enough to make you pay for it.”