Bills clinch East with victory over Jets 31-17
Bills to make first playoff appearance in 5 years
posted by swaygodeus on May 21, 2011
Here come the Bills to a playoffs near you!!
Ralph Wilson Stadium Orchard Park NY
The fans at One Bills drive were electric. Faced with a do or die, winner take all matchup with division rival New York, the fans knew they had to be on their game just as much as the Bills were.
Both teams enduring struggles this season, one was going to have a chance to take that next step in to the playoffs. Would it be the perennial Jets, who seemingly take the East title each and every year, or the Bills, who have shown flashes of success behind their running game?
Today belonged to the Buffalo Bills.
The story of this game was the Bills ground attack. The Jets had seemingly no answer to either CJ Spiller or Sean Loften. At times the Bills would run the ball 5-6 plays in a row, spelling Spiller for the fresh Loften and vice versa.
Spiller would break away with a 48 yard TD in the 2nd quarter, while in the 3rd, with the Bills controlling the ball, Loften would out muscle 3 Jets defenders as he powered 40 yards for a score. Both backs had 1 TD each and both went over the century mark, with Spiller netting 126 yards on 16 carries and Loften 120 yards on 14 carries.
This would keep the clock moving in the Bills favor. The Bills offense kept the ball for more than double the Jets, at 20:51 to just 8:52.
On the flip side, the Jets offense struggled, however it was able to go ahead early with a Brandon Banks TD and keep it close late in the 3rd with a Levon Waiters 63 yard TD.
The Bills defense played well, holding the Jets to just 145 yards compared to the Bills 387 yards. The front line came up with some big short yardage stops, holding the Jets to 1-6 on 3rd downs.
The unsung hero in this one was TE Jeremy Shockey. Shockey had 3 catches for 80 yards and both of Matt Moore's TD's. He was wide open on the left side of the field to tie the game at 7 early on and then in the 2nd made a grab in the end zone over two Jets defenders for the score.
The Bills end the season at 9-7, good enough this year for the AFC East crown. They were 5-1 in the division, beating the Jets and Pats twice and Dolphins once. They still will no doubt miss their starting QB Levi Brown as well as the elusive DE Aaron Maybin in the playoffs.
Good game Bombs!!
This game was yet another DC in the Bills saga this year, however Bombs was gracious enough to count the game with it heading to the 4th. We know how it would've ended up anyway though, don't we Bombs
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