EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ – The Buffalo Bills won. Yippee.

They beat the New York Jets, and while there are a few circumstances to make the Bills happy with a 23-20 win at the Meadowlands, the Jets are awful and fired their head coach a week ago and probably still had them on Monday night have to win.

The game was a dog’s breakfast.

The Bills turned in an Alpo-level performance, but they went out of their way to compound their third straight loss with uncharacteristic lapses in discipline and situational awareness. They gave up an inexcusable Hail Mary touchdown at the end of the first half. They committed an unimaginable number of crimes. Tyler Bass missed more kicks.

Jets kicker Greg Zuerlein had a pair of go-ahead field goal attempts from the left wing in the final 16 minutes. Bass finally made one – barely – from 22 whole yards out with 3:43 to play.

Bills coach Sean McDermott called the win “horrific.” Much of the night could be described with another word that rhymes.

“There’s a lot of cleanup to do,” McDermott said, “and a short week to do it.”

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Lindy Ruff, the head coach of owner Terry Pegula’s other team, said Saturday after the win for the first time since returning to the Buffalo Sabers that the moment was more “a stress reliever” than cause for celebration. The Sabers desperately needed a win, and so did the Bills, trying to avoid their first three-game losing skid in six years.

Bills quarterback Josh Allen still hasn’t lost three straight as a starter. After last week’s disastrous performance against the Houston Texans, in which he completed nine of 30 throws, he went 19 of 25 for 215 yards and two touchdowns. Rookie tailback Ray Davis, who replaced injured Pro Bowler James Cook, helped overcome the kinks with 97 rushing yards and 152 scrimmage yards, game-highs for any Buffalo player this year.

But one jumped the other way and firefighter Ed parades through the station today in a good mood.

For example, big play receiver Mike Williams was wide open but slipped onto the MetLife Stadium turf on Buffalo’s 18-yard line, allowing Taron Johnson to intercept Aaron Rodgers to end the game with 1:52 to play . Maybe Zuerlein had missed a third field goal, but you could almost hear the Bills sideline exhaling all the way into Orchard Park.

“It’s easy to judge the tape when you’re winning,” Bills cornerback Rasul Douglas said. “When you lose, it’s hard.”

The Hail Mary touchdown at the end of the first half was a crushing blow that pulled the Jets within three points. (Elsa/Getty Images)

For the third week in a row, the defense gave up an absurdly long touchdown.

With 8 seconds left until halftime and the Jets at the Bills’ 48-yard line, McDermott and defensive coordinator Bobby Babich decided to attack Rodgers with only two defenders and guard the sideline to prevent the Jets from running out of bounds come, so Zuerlein could make an attempt. field goal on the last play.

Rodgers threw a curved spiral into the middle of the end zone, where receiver Allen Lazard jumped between Bills safeties Taylor Rapp and Damar Hamlin and Johnson for the 52-yard touchdown to pull the Jets within three points.

“At the end of the day, they outperformed us,” said McDermott, declining to elaborate on his strategy. “We have to go back and re-examine it to make sure we have the right number of rushers for that situation, as well as the right number of coverage guys.

The Bills didn’t yield a single touchdown of more than 50 yards last year, but they have surrendered one in the past three games. Derrick Henry sprinted 87 yards on the Ravens’ first snap, followed last week by Texans receiver Nico Collins injuring his hamstring on a 67-yard touchdown strike from C.J. Stroud in the first quarter. At least Rodgers waited a while to exploit Buffalo’s respect.

A few years ago I coined the phrase ‘derble derp’ to describe the downside of intending to win and delay the toss. A double dip occurs when that team controls the clock and scores on the last possession before halftime, then kicks off for the second half and scores again.

So instead of scoring on consecutive drives, Buffalo allowed another embarrassing touchdown and Bass missed another field goal, this one going wide from 47 yards with 11:06 left in the third quarter. He has now converted just two of his five attempts between 40 and 49 yards. Bass also missed an extra point in the second quarter after the Bills drove 90 yards in 10 plays, finishing with Allen’s sharp dart to Mack Hollins from 8 yards out.

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No NFL game this year featured more penalties, with referee Adrian Hill’s crew calling 22 accepted for 204 yards. Both numbers were the most in a Bills game since 2018. The Bills were docked 11 times for 94 yards, the Jets 11 times for 110 yards. A further six penalties were offset, while two were dismissed. That’s 30 flags.

“I’m not one to blame referees,” Bills right tackle Spencer Brown said, “but when they start interfering in the play and making calls that could go either way, this side gets heated and then comes back and heat the other side. .

“It’s like we’re a bunch of wasps in a jar. We’re kind of calm and do our own thing, but once you start shaking the pot, we all get pretty pissed off.

McDermott counted six penalties against Buffalo before the break or after the whistle. Brown was called for unnecessary roughness on a third-and-6 in the third quarter, offsetting a defensive pass interference call that would have moved the Bills down about 30 yards in a tied game. Instead they punted.

“That’s non-negotiable,” McDermott said. “We don’t tolerate things like that. We definitely need to do better in that category.”

Bills left tackle Dion Dawkins basked in victory in his locker as he donned sunglasses and a green jacket. He made sure to tell reporters he was wearing to mock the Jets some more. The Rahway, NJ native has been talking about the Jets for months and took a costly penalty for taunting defensive tackle Quinnen Williams between the third and fourth quarters. The unsportsmanlike conduct put the Bills in a third-and-21 situation from their own 11-yard line and led to a punt.

But as Douglas noted, mistakes are less stressful to swallow when you’re winning.

Instead of dwelling on three straight losses and sliding to second place behind the Jets in the AFC East standings (imagine that), the Bills remain undefeated in the division and can rationalize that on Monday night learned more about themselves than they knew in five games.

“Our main goal is to make the playoffs, and you do that by winning in your division,” Allen said. “So we understand the seriousness of these types of games. We were 4-2 with a two and a half game lead with the head-to-head win, instead of 3-3 and second place.

“But in the grand scheme of things it was next, and that’s why it was the most important.”

(Top photo: Lucas Boland / Imagn Images)