Sabato: Robert Saleh's Jets defense solves Bills by testing Josh Allen's patience

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Josh Allen was the last player to take off his uniform in the visitor’s locker room at MetLife Stadium.

The knees of his socks were shredded and it was hard to dissect whether the expression on his face was frustration, shock or sadness following the Buffalo Bills’ 22-16 overtime loss to the New York Jets. Monday’s season opener against the Jets was an example of a game Allen was supposed to be the trump card, the unyielding force few other teams possess.

Instead, Allen lost to a team quarterbacked by Zach Wilson for the second consecutive season.

Zach Wilson.

All three of his interceptions — which were caught by Jets safety Jordan Whitehead — were head-scratching. He wasn’t throwing into coverage all night nor were passes being deflected. Allen just made three isolated throws that were caught by Whitehead, two of which came in Jets territory.

Then throw in the fumble, the game-tying drive in which all four of his completions were nowhere near the sidelines that guaranteed a field goal over a touchdown and an abysmal three-and-out overtime possession that led to Xavier Gipson’s game-winning 65-yard punt return for a touchdown.

“Same ..., same place, different day,” Allen said, drawing a deep breath.

Allen’s decision-making is fair game to question, but after five games since arriving in New York, it’s safe to say Jets head coach Robert Saleh’s defense has a beat on Allen and the Bills’ offense. Since being scorched for 366 yards in Saleh’s first game against Buffalo as a head coach in 2021, Allen is averaging 206.8 yards passing, with four touchdowns, five interceptions and 13 sacks over the last four games.

“They play smart defense,” Allen said. “They don’t do a whole lot, they’re not over-complicated. I think (C.J.) Mosley’s a good player in the middle and they caught the ball a few times tonight and that’s on me.”

Saleh didn’t invent some revolutionary new defense to thwart Allen, the Jets just forced him to be patient and disciplined and he couldn’t. On the first interception, Allen had enough space to double the 8 yards needed for a first down, but instead of moving the sticks on third down, he uncorked a pass to a double-covered Deonte Harty that wasn’t even close.

Perhaps the most foolish interception was the second, because the offense was clicking and Allen made some throws in rhythm to Dawson Knox for 15 yards, a 9-yard throw to Dalton Kincaid and an 8-yard throw to Stefon Diggs. But then he tried to force a deep throw to Diggs that killed the drive instead of the Jets with a 13-3 lead in the third quarter.

The Jets dared Allen to make these throws like they would a rookie quarterback and he obliged like it was his first or second season in the league.

“He’s hard on himself,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “He wants to win and sometimes that’s what, at times, get’s the best of him. (It’s) just taking what the defense gives you and that’s a good defense. When you play the way they do, they make you do things that you don’t want to do, but it can’t be to that extent like it was tonight.”

Of course, placing the blame squarely on Allen is also unfair because several of New York’s sacks were back-breaking for some promising drives. In fact, all five of the sacks recorded by the Jets came on first down.

The Bills had eight first downs result in negative yardage and they averaged 3.2 yards per play on first down, while all three of their accepted offensive plenalties came on first down. That included a false start by offensive tackle Spencer Brown to begin overtime.

“It definitely hurt when you work all week and then you get to get to a game and you start hurting yourself,” Harty said. “It wasn’t anything they were doing, it was really all on us. We just have to clean up the little things.”

One of the little things has to be patience. The Bills have accumulated five playoff berths in six seasons by taking away big plays and forcing teams to play smart. Sometimes that one, big kill-shot isn’t available and the Bills have to be accepting.

The longest passing play for either team was a 26-yard throw to Gabe Davis. One team lived with it and the other team didn’t.

In fact, the Jets have lived with it often against the Bills. In his two wins over Buffalo, Wilson — a player with more career interceptions than touchdowns — has thrown for 154 and 140 yards, respectively, but has completed 70% of his passes and had one interception.

“It’s never on one player. It’s definitely not on (Allen),” Davis said. “Feel like Week 1, we had a tough game today but we’ll shake back and get back. Just trying to get in a rhythm; we found that sometimes, and sometimes we were kind of off beat so we just have to find a way to stay in the rhythm. We have to clean some things up and do better.”

Nick Sabato can be reached via email at nick.sabato@gnnewspaper.com or on Twitter @NickSabatoGNN.