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Inside the Numbers: Takedowns & Takeaways

The Jets Reversed Some Trends vs. the Bills with 7 Sacks of Tyrod Taylor and 3 Fumble Recoveries

Updated 9:05 p.m. ET

Some Jets game are so rich in detail, it takes a few days to swish the photo paper around in the developer and tease out all the fine details (old-timey photography reference). So it was with the Jets' 34-21 win over the Bills on Thursday night.

The TakeawaysIt was remarkable that the Bills had entered the game as the NFL's No. 1 turnover margin team at plus-14 with no minus games this year, and left at plus-11 after their minus-3. In the last four seasons, the Bills have experienced four minus-3 games. Two were administered by the Jets, who also turned that trick in last year's finale, who had as many as the rest of the NFL combined.

The Jets' TO margin, meanwhile, is at plus-2 — the first time in 25 games that they finished a game with a plus margin for the season.

Interesting how quickly the turnover tables flip. For the first seven games the Jets had been among the NFL leaders with nine interceptions but with only two opponents' fumble recoveries. In the last two games, no picks but five fumble recoveries.

Rookie S Jamal Adams got his second FR in two games. He's the first Jet with two fumbles in two games since Darrelle Revis had two recoveries at Indy in 2015 and three in the first two games that year. Adams is also the first Jets safety with two FRs in two games since Kerry Rhodes in 2008 (vs. the Rams, at the Patriots). And he's the first Jets rookie to do that since DE Hugh Douglas at the end of the 1996 season (vs. Eagles and Dolphins).

The Jets haven't had a defensive touchdown return since Antonio Allen's INT-return TD against Tom Brady and the Patriots in 2013. But three games ago, Muhammad Wilkerson took his interception to the Miami 1, and Thursday Demario Davis returned a fumble to the Buffalo 5. Just a feeling that dam's going to break soon.

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The SacksAs DC Kacy Rodgers said a few weeks back about the defense's sluggish sack rate, "I've been a front coach for a long time. Sometimes you can be at zero, the next week you can have six. They come in bunches."

Just like that, the Jets, 31st in the NFL in sack rate, bunched up Tyrod Taylor seven times. It was the most sacks of an individual quarterback since the Jets took down the Bengals' Andy Dalton seven times in the 2016 opener, the most in a victory since sacking Ryan Tannehill at Miami seven times in the 2014 finale, the most in a home win since dropping the Bills' EJ Manuel eight times in 2013.

Since 2015, opponents had 13 strip sacks of Jets QBs to three strips by the Jets. When Jordan Jenkins separated Taylor from the ball in the final period, it was the Green & White's first strip of the season and Jenkins' second as a pro. He had his first of Manuel in Game 16 last year.

Jenkins' first Taylor takedown was also a sack of distinction. It came on the game's first scrimmage play, marking the first time that a Jet recorded a sack on the opponents' first play since the Jets' very first regular-season game at MetLife, called New Meadowlands Stadium in 2010. On the Baltimore's first play on that opening night, Joe Flacco dropped back, Shaun Ellis separated him from the ball, Sione Poʻuha recovered at the Ravens 13, and the Jets proceeded to Nick Folk's first field goal as a Jet for a quick 3-0 lead.

Seven different Jets had whole or half sacks Thursday — Jenkins with two, Demario Davis, Darron Lee Muhammad Wilkerson and Kony Ealy with one each, and Leonard Williams and Steve McLendon with a half each. That may well equal the most in a game in franchise history. The only other game with seven different defenders recording sacks since 1981 was the EJ Manuel game in '13.

The four second-quarter sacks was the most in any quarter since taking down Tannehill five times in the fourth quarter in '14. How about the last time the Jets notched four sacks in a first-half quarter? That would be 2003 at Philadelphia when Donovan McNabb was sacked four times, 2.5 of them by John Abraham.

Despite seven sacks on Thursday and 18 for the season, the Jets still haven't had a third-quarter sack.

Top Snapshots from the Week 9 Matchup Between the Jets and Bills at MetLife Stadium

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