Final Score: Bills 43 – Jets 23

Location: East Rutherford, NJ – MetLife Stadium

W-L records: Buffalo (5-3); New York (1-7)

In a Nutshell:

In a pivotal division contest that the Bills needed to have, Buffalo generated most of their scoring via turnovers Sunday against the Jets, notching 20 points off six takeaways by their defense in a 43-23 victory at MetLife Stadium. It was the first time the Bills had six takeaways in a game in five seasons, and the 43 points scored were the most since a 49-point outburst against Cincinnati on Nov. 21, 2010.

Buffalo's defense chased Jets' QB Geno Smith from the game after each of New York's first three possessions ended in Smith interceptions. Michael Vick came in to relieve Smith, but did not fare much better losing a pair of fumbles and throwing an interception of his own.

The Jets were able to close an early 17-point lead by the Bills (24-7) to seven at the half (24-17), but it would be as close as they would get in Buffalo's largest margin of victory this season (20).

The Bills with new running backs Boobie Dixon and Bryce Brown in the lineup found it tough to run the ball, but it mattered little as New York could not execute consistently for most of the afternoon on offense.

With the victory Buffalo improved to 5-3 overall and 2-1 in the AFC East, and remained just a game behind division-leading New England (6-2). They have a bye in Week 9.

How it went down:

--For the first time this season the Bills scored on their opening possession to take an early 7-0 lead. Kyle Orton hit Robert Woods on a 22-yard post for a touchdown to cap a seven-play 64-yard drive early in the first quarter.

--Buffalo tacked on another touchdown, this time off their third takeaway of the opening quarter as an Aaron Williams interception return set the offense up at the Jets' one-yard line. Kyle Orton found Lee Smith all by himself for a one-yard touchdown catch to put the Bills up 14-0 with four minutes left in the first quarter.

--Chris Ivory pulled the Jets to within a touchdown on a three-yard touchdown run (14-7) early in the second quarter.

--Sammy Watkins 84-yard catch and run set up a 1st-and-goal situation for the Bills at the Jets' five-yard line. Frank Summers powered in from two yards out to push Buffalo's lead back to 14 early in the second quarter (21-7).

--The Bills made it 10 points off turnovers when Dan Carpenter put a 53-yard field goal through after a fumble recovery by Duke Williams at the Jets 34-yard line midway through the second quarter (24-7).

--New York scored 10 unanswered points to close out the first half to cut a 17-point deficit to a touchdown. The Jets put together an 11-play 74-yard drive capped by Chris Ivory's three-yard TD run. Then after the Bills went three-and-out with 1:50 left in the half, Michael Vick completed a pair of passes to put Nick Folk in position to bomb a 55-yard field goal as time expired to make it 24-17 at the break.

--The Bills pushed the lead back up to 10, thanks mainly to a 24-yard punt return by Leodis McKelvin that gave the offense a drive start at the Jets' 27-yard line. Dan Carpenter hit a 36-yard attempt up and through with 8:31 left in the third quarter (27-17).

--Winning the battle of field position in the second half the Bills posted another field goal off a short drive with Carpenter making good on a 29-yarder to make it 30-14 late in the third quarter.

--Buffalo then made the most of their fourth interception of the game by Da'Norris Searcy as Kyle Orton threw an 11-yard touchdown pass to Scott Chandler to put the game away with 14 minutes left (37-17).

--Those weren't the last points scored by Buffalo. Orton found Sammy Watkins for a 61-yard catch and run for a touchdown to make it 43-17 Bills with nine minutes left.

--New York tacked on a meaningless touchdown with four minutes remaining (43-23).

Stat lines

--Kyle Orton was 10 of 17 passing for 238 yards and four touchdowns with a passer rating of 142.8.

--Sammy Watkins posted another 100-yard receiving day Sunday with 157 yards on three receptions with a touchdown. He's the first Bills rookie WR with consecutive 100-yard receiving games. He's also the first Bills receiver to post back-to-back 100-yard receiving days since Lee Evans did in 2007.

--RBs Bryce Brown and Boobie Dixon combined for 59 rushing yards on 29 carries for a 2.03 yards per carry average.

--Stephon Gilmore, rookie LB Preston Brown and Aaron Williams posted first quarter interceptions of Jets QB Geno Smith chasing him from the game.

--Buffalo posted a total of six takeaways in the game. It was the first time the Bills forced six turnovers since an overtime win over the Jets on Oct. 19, 2009.

--The Bills offense was 4-for-6 in the red zone Sunday (66.6%).

Quotes from the locker room
"Our defense has played great all year. We've got an incredible defense, one of the best in the league and it obviously makes everyone's job easier when they're putting you in that type of field position so good team win, special teams, defense and offense and that's how we've got to play."
--QB Kyle Orton

"When you got the best D-line in the league it gives the secondary a chance to make plays like that. It's hard for the quarterback to read his reads when he's too worried about getting sacked.  That makes it easy for us."
--S Aaron Williams

"(Being 5-3) means a lot. It means we're right in it.  We're right where we planned to be. We won the first two quarters of the season, which was our goal. We got the bye week coming up. We've got to make sure we stay focused during the bye week and get right back in it."
--RB Boobie Dixon "We had Geno rattled. We just had to stay after him. He was just eyeing down receivers, we saw it on film, that he was just staring guys down. When you do that, and we know you do that, we're going to jump on those routes. We got a lot of picks on the back end with those guys just reading his eyes."
--LB Preston Brown 

Subplots:

--Buffalo notched three interceptions off of Jets QB Geno Smith in the first quarter. It's the first time since the 2012 season that an NFL team posted three interceptions in an opening quarter (Arizona – 11/18/12).

--Kyle Williams with 1.5 sacks moved into 10th place on the team's all-time sack list with 31.5 in his career.

--Kyle Orton eclipsed the 16,000-yard passing plateau Sunday. He also tied a career high with four touchdown passes last doing it with Denver in the 2010 season.

--The Bills are 5-3 or better at the midway point of the season for the first time since 2011.

Inactives:

CB Ross Cockrell, RB Fred Jackson, RB Phillip Tanner, LB Ty Powell, OT Cyrus Kouandjio, WR Marcus Easley, WR Marquise Goodwin.

Up Next:

The Bills have their bye in Week 9 before the return in Week 10 to host the Kansas City Chiefs at Ralph Wilson Stadium Nov. 9th for a 1 pm kickoff.