Buffalo defensive end Mario Williams claimed he had Jets offensive tackle Austin Howard’s hands in his face all game. So he pointed a specific finger afterwards.
“I know what to expect, he’s definitely a hands to the face guy and they don’t call it, so he’s going to continue to do it until somebody stops him,” said Williams, whose first return after signing the richest defensive free agent payout ever was one tackle. “That’s fine, we’ll deal with that.”
But probably not as well as Howard, in his first-ever start for the Jets after replacing Wayne Hunter, dealt with him.
“I didn’t see any flags out there. I’m sorry he felt that way. Nothing was ever intentional. If that did happen there’s no purposefulness to it,” said Howard, who received mountains of praise from teammates for the masterful job he did on the 6-foot-6, 292-pound Williams, the guy signed to a six-year deal potentially worth $100 million with $50 million guaranteed. “I’m not really going to get into that.”
Howard was part of the line that protected Mark Sanchez or opened holes and generally turned Buffalo’s defense upside down. The Bills did not record a single sack.
“A lot of credit goes to Austin Howard for giving Mark all that time against arguably one of the best pass-rushers in the game,” said linebacker Calvin Pace. “An unsung guy. That’s what team football is all about — someone people might not know about stepping up.”
And simply stepping on and over an opponent. Figure the 6-foot-7, 333-pound Howard goes from being “the guy who’ll get his clock cleaned by Mario Williams” to something a little more respectful.
“Austin Howard had a tremendous game and maybe he made a name for himself today,” said coach Rex Ryan.
“Austin had a monster challenge and he really did answer the call,” said Sanchez.
“A great job, especially going up against Mario Williams. He’s a great player and Austin held his own and showed the whole world he’s capable,” said running back Shonn Greene (94 rushing yards).
Howard gave a modest response. The victory, a 48-28 pounding, was the thing. As far as keeping Mario and Friends away from Sanchez and neutralizing them as threats to the Jets, Howard stressed how it’s only getting better from here.
“I expect more out of myself than anybody else expects out of me,” Howard said. “I respect [Williams] a ton. … I get nervous before every game but I was really excited for this. We all were, [but] I’m excited we just got this first win And we did it in a great fashion. We wanted to show our fans we have something pretty special.”