There’ll be plenty of nitpicking surrounding the Buffalo Bills and their incapacity to much sooner put away a New York Jets team exhibiting no interest in winning. Nevertheless, at the end of the day the Bills enter their bye week with a winning record after routing the lowly Jets, 43-23 for their first win in New York in five years.

The Bills arrived at Metlife Stadium having turned the ball over seven times over the past two weeks. The Jets nearly matched that total in three quarters Sunday.  Jets starter Geno Smith threw three interceptions in the first 10 minutes before getting benched.  Michael Vick was more effective, at least with his legs (game-high 69 yards rushing) but also committed three turnovers of his own, including a pair of lost fumbles.

In all the Bills defense forced six Jets turnovers and three sacks while holding the them to an average of just 3.9 yards per offensive play; an output New York actual padded late in garbage time.

The Jets are 1-7 and have lost seven in a row for the first time in nine years. Rex Ryan’s tenture as their head coach could be on life support after this disgrace of an effort in front of a home crowd impervious to letting them know how they felt about this afternoon and this season.

Quite a few times this year the Bills have faced a team seeming poised to get blown out. On Sunday, they finally got around to doing it.

“We’ve got to do this all the time, not some of the time.” Bills head coach Doug Marrone told reporters following the game.

While the defense for the most part dominated, Kyle Orton paced the offense with 238 yards through the air and four touchdown passes without an interception as he improved to 3-1 since taking over for E.J. Manuel.

157 of those yards went to rookie wide receiver Sammy Watkins, who had a memorable afternoon.  Orton hooked up with Watkins on an 84-yard bomb early in the second quarter. The play set a Bills franchise record for the longest non-scoring pass in franchise history, but it’s a record that should’ve never happened.  The play would’ve gone for a touchdown, but Watkins prematurely began celebrating and slowed down, allowing him to get caught from behind by Saalim Hakim.

No damage was ultimately done, however as Frank Summers ran in a touchdown from two yards out two plays later, and Watkins later redeemed himself in the fourth quarter when he hooked up with Orton on a 61-yard touchdown for the Bills final points.

Marrone made his expectations clear regarding any Watkins hasty celebrations in the future.

"There were a lot of people that were upset... I don't expect a guy like Sammy to do that again."  Marrone said.

Critics condemned Buffalo for trading up with Cleveland and giving up next year’s top draft pick to select Watkins fourth overall.  How much the audacious move made by Doug Whaley eventually helps or sets back the organization can be debated, but Watkins has been an explosive difference maker at the halfway point of the season and is on pace for 1,180 receiving yards.

While the Bills squandered numerous opportunities to make the contest a blowout before halftime, the outcome was never really in doubt.  Orton hit Robert Woods (22 yards) and Lee Smith (one yard) for touchdowns as the Bills led after the first quarter, 14-0.

The scoring pass to Woods was the Bills first opening drive touchdown in 11 games.

Meanwhile, Geno Smith didn’t live to see the field by the second quarter.  Three of his first eight passes were interceptions to Stephon Gilmore, Preston Brown and Aaron Williams.

Ryan had seen enough and Smith was pulled in favor of Vick to a nice ovation from a dejected New York home crowd.

Vick was overall more effective than Smith but lost a second quarter fumble after being hit by Bills linebacker Nigel Bradham, leading to a Dan Carpenter 53-yard field goal.

Still, the Bills were not able to take advantage of New York’s generosity and converted four first half New York turnovers into just 10 points.  Largely because of the Bills inability to capitalize, a pair of short Chris Ivory touchdown runs and a 55-yard Nick Folk field goal had the Jets trailing at halftime by just seven, 24-17.

A long punt return by Leodis McKelvin gave the Bills a drive start at the New York 27, and a sack of Vick by Corbin Bryant on the Jets 10 and subsequent Stefan Charles fumble recovery gave Buffalo the ball at the Jets 10, but the offense couldn’t find the end zone either time and settled for a pair of Carpenter field goals---the only points of the third quarter.

The Bills finally blew it wide open when Da’Norris Searcy picked off Vick and returned it 32 yards to the Jets 21 near the end of the third quarter, ultimately resulting in a 12-yard Scott Chandler touchdown reception as the Bills went up 37-17.

Vick’s interception made the Jets the first team to have two quarterbacks with three turnovers in the same game in 23 years.

Watkins put the icing on the cake with the Bills last touchdown while Bilal Powell scored on a three-yard run for the Jets with 4:06 left for the game’s final points.

Buffalo enters their bye week with a record over .500 at the season’s midpoint for only the fourth time during their 14-yearplayoff drought. They were also 5-3 in 2002, 2008 and 2011.

They return to host the Kansas City Chiefs in two weeks.

Game Notes: The Bills intercepted three passes in the first quarter, the first time that’s happened in the NFL since Arizona did in in 2012..  The six Bills takeaways were the most since playing the Jets in New York in 2009… The Bills running game was atrocious Sunday, averaging just 2.1 yards per carry on 32 attempts… The lone Bills ball carrier to average three yards per carry was Kyle Orton, who was credited for six yards on two carries… Nigel Bradham committed four penalties on the day, including three personal fouls.

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