1 - Taylor's play efficient under pressure
There wasn't much to get excited about in Buffalo's 34-21 loss to the New York Jets on Thursday night. One of the few bright spots came from Bills quarterback, Tyrod Taylor. He was able to put up solid numbers despite his offensive line struggling throughout the night.
Taylor was sacked a season-high seven times on Thursday, five of those coming in the first half. He endured pressure for all four quarters and was hit over 10 times to go with the high sack total.
"They did a good job of pushing the pocket up front. Our guys battled their butts off, but this is a very talented defensive line," Taylor said. "We knew that going into the game and that it was going to be a challenge for us. They've done a great job of pushing it. Overall, they just executed better than we did.
Although Taylor had little time to work he set some season-highs of his own. His final stat line was 29 of 40 passing for 285 yards and two touchdowns. He also didn't throw an interception for the third-straight game. Taylor's 29 completions and 40 attempts are both the most he's recorded this year. Also his 285 passing yards was his most on the season. He finished the game with a passer rating of 108.9, his second-best mark on the year. And his 72.5 percent completion rate was the third-best of the campaign.
Bills head coach, Sean McDermott, saw some positive plays from his quarterback despite the loss.
"I think he continues to develop as a quarterback," he said. "He took a step forward in some areas last night… I thought he threw the ball fairly accurate most of the night with a presence in his face. There are some things I know he wants back and can learn from as well."
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2 - McCoy's time on the field**
Bills running back, LeSean McCoy, took on a heavy amount of snaps on Thursday against the New York Jets. Despite being on the field most of the night McCoy wasn't able to get started. He finished the game with just 25 rushing yards. McCoy's now 2-3 with the Bills when he doesn't rush for over 100 yards against the Jets.
Head coach, Sean McDermott, talked about his workload with just four days of rest.
"Probably one of the top playing times he's had all year long," he said. "Touches was another thing, we had a tough time getting the running game going. Credit to the Jets."
After two strong showings in the prior weeks the Bills running game took a step back. McCoy didn't get too much help from his fellow backs and the offensive line. Often there was penetration into the backfield right after he was handed the ball.
Mike Tolbert rushed the ball four times and only mustered three yards. The team's third-string running back, Taiwan Jones, suffered a season-ending injury late in the fourth quarter. Buffalo's going to need to make some adjustments in the ground game and have to be conscious not to overuse McCoy in the process.
Buffalo never led in the game against New York and at one point trailed by 27 points. McCoy mentioned after the game how they handled that adversity.
"I think adversity hit us and we didn't respond well, particularly myself. I didn't play well at all," said McCoy, who played 73 percent of the offensive snaps. "I took it as a challenge knowing guys were coming in here trying to stop me, stop the run and I didn't respond well at all."
"It's something we have to work at. It's a loss, we'll go back to the drawing board, watch the tape, learn from it. We'll have a nice time off, get the bodies right and get ready for the next game."
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3 - Rooting out penalty problem**
Under head coach Sean McDermott the Bills have been a relatively disciplined bunch. That wasn't the case on Thursday night. Buffalo took themselves out of the game with uncharacteristic penalties. In the third quarter, the team had more penalty yards (54) than offensive yards (52).
One of the more notable penalties came from the mouth of Jerry Hughes. It was in the third quarter when a flag was thrown for unsportsmanlike conduct. Hughes was given a 15-yard penalty after mouthing off to the referee.
McDermott mentioned during Friday's press conference his displeasure with the loss of composure.
"I wasn't happy about it. Penalties overall I'm not happy about," he said. "Those types of penalties are not characteristic of how we do things here. It's hard enough to win in this league. When you do things like that, I wasn't very happy."
The Bills will have plenty of time to fix the hiccups from Thursday's loss. Their next game is over a week away when the New Orleans Saints come to New Era Field.
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