JETS 16, BILLS 14

When I read the New York Daily News this morning, and saw their preview predicting a Jets 16-13 win, I was thinking, what are you, crazy? Then I reviewed my pick, Jets, 28-17, and what I wrote on Thursday - that it would be a little closer than you might expect, but the Jets would still win comfortably. Well, it was A LOT closer than you might have expected...and the Jets won, but not comfortably. (Good prediction, Daily News.)

Again, the play-calling was way too conservative. There were a ton of opportunities in the game for the Jets to put the Bills away. Up 7-0 as halftime was approaching, the Jets had the ball at about the 15 yard line with 13 seconds left, and instead of taking a shot into the end zone to try to get a touchdown, the Jets let the clock run down, called timeout, then kicked a field goal to take a 10-0 lead into the half instead of 14-0. In the second half, the Jets had a couple of offensive series where they went three and out on a few running plays instead of spreading the field and jumping out to a bigger lead. That allowed the Bills to get back into the game.

Chad Pennington had a pretty good game statistically. Probably the quietest 300-yard passing game you'll see. He finished 31 of 42 for 304 yards. He threw 1 Touchdown and 1 interception, and the interception was not a smart play. Instead of taking a sack, Pennington tried to force a pass, which was picked off. (That INT led to the first Buffalo touchdown.) He did that again later in the game, but luckily completed the pass. This is the difference, though, between a Pennington-led Jets team, though, and any other Jets team. After the Jets fell behind 14-13, I felt they would be able to turn it on offensively, and come right back down the field to score and take the lead back. That's what they did. Pennington found everyone on the drive - Chrebet, Sowell, McCareins, and Becht (what a catch!) en route to Doug Brien's game-winning field goal. But again, this is something we've talked about, if the Jets can drive down the field at will when they need to win the game, they should be able to throw the ball a lot more earlier in the game to pad their lead a bit.

Curtis Martin rushed for just 77 yards - his lowest total so far on the year. Not a bad effort, though, considering the Bills' defense isn't too bad. The Bills, by the way, continue to hold the title of "Best Winless Team in the NFL". Another hard-luck loss for them.

The main reason the Jets won this game, though, was the defense. Jonathan Vilma again started at middle linebacker, and did another good job. He was involved in a lot of big plays. So was John Abraham. He's just getting better every week. I predicted two things for this game - the Jets would test the Bills deep on offense often (wrong on that count), and that the Jets would sack Drew Bledsoe a lot. They got him four times - and Abraham had 3 of those sacks. (Vilma had the other.) Abraham was constantly pressuring Bledose, and the 'D' knew just when to put pressure on him to force him to rush a pass. The only two touchdowns for the Bills came late in the game, which isn't good, but, seriously, the Jets should have been up by 24 points, not 13, when the Bills got those two TD's.

All that said, the Jets are 4-0. They're playing well enough to beat teams like the Dolphins, Bills, and 49ers, who they play next week. But the Jets have to work on a lot of things over the next couple of weeks if they want to be able to beat the Patriots on the 24th. They will not win that game unless they open up the offense more than they did on Sunday against Buffalo.

Tuesday's mail day - share your thoughts on Sunday's game, next Sunday's game, or anything else on your mind. Send your e-mails by Monday evening.