So maybe it’s not the Thomas Jones-led “Ground-and-Pound” assault Rex Ryan unleashed in his first season with the Jets.
But the Jets surely are hoping for a repeat against the Bills Sunday of whatever it was exactly they employed to surprise the Saints two weeks ago.
“Everybody’s got to do their job. It takes consistency,” said the 6-foot, 222-pound Chris Ivory who led the power game with a season-high 139 yards against New Orleans. “We have to do it week to week with everybody doing their job. Right now, we’re taking it day by day.”
Before their bye week, the Jets battered the Saints for their season-best 198 rushing yards, the bulk by Ivory. The Bills (3-7) saw close up earlier this season what the Jets can do. With Bilal Powell at the forefront in a career-best 149-yard day, the Jets in Week 3 ran for 182 yards, the most surrendered by the Bills this season, and claimed a 27-20 victory.
“They’re a better defense than what we saw earlier. It was a good day for us that day,” guard Willie Colon said. “They’re a better team at home. Obviously, watching them at home, they play a lot faster, a lot stronger. They’re comfortable in their home stadium so it’s going to be our ability to start fast and execute and pay attention to detail that’s going to get us through the game. If we start slow, it could get muddy for us.”
But if the Jets do more of that fast starting, detail observing, proper executing, it will all make life easier for rookie quarterback Geno Smith.
Ex-Jet, now-Bill defensive back Jim Leonhard stressed “you definitely have to try” unfurling any and all tactics designed to rattle Smith.
Leonhard said using things that “might make him second-guess himself” could be effective.
So the more productive the Jets running game is, the more pressure will be taken off Smith.
“Obviously, you want to keep the pressure off Geno, but I think that’s our strength right now,” Colon said. “We’re a real strong running team. We have backs that can really hit it. The one-two punch of Ivory and Bilal just adds to our offense. We get those guys going early, it just benefits us.”
And gets the Jets back into their old Ground-and-Pound ways.
“We’re just trying to execute all together as a unit,” Ivory said. “If everybody does their job, if everybody executes, we’ll be fine.”
The Jets, after their ground pasting of New Orleans, average 129.0 yards per game and have vaulted into ninth place on the NFL team rushing stat list, up from 13th. Not bad for an offense under coordinator Marty Mornhinweg that favors the pass. The Bills surrender 117.3 rushing yards per game, ranking way down on the stat list at 22nd. But Buffalo has surrendered just three rushing touchdowns.
Nevertheless, the Jets aren’t reading much into that 22nd ranking.
“No, they’re a much better team than what the stats show,” Ivory said.