National Football League

Two plays that fueled Jets’ upset; Bills WR Gabe Davis is back: AFC East takeaways

Updated Oct. 10, 2022 4:37 p.m. ET

By Henry McKenna
FOX Sports AFC East Writer

It was blowout week for the AFC East.

For these four teams in Week 5, it was either blow out or get blown out. The Buffalo Bills stomped the Pittsburgh Steelers 38-3. The New England Patriots throttled the Detroit Lions 29-0. And the New York Jets — yes, the New York Jets — blew out the Miami Dolphins 40-17.

The AFC East is getting confusing, in part due to injuries and in part due to erratic play from all the teams that don't reside on a lake (Buffalo). The Bills are obviously the top of the class. They have been consistently one of the NFL's best teams. But the other three are finding their week and their records reflect that. So let's take a look at what happened this week and what it means.

Let's start with the Jets' upset win over the Dolphins.

Jets pull out win vs. Dolphins in Week 5, now 3-2

While Craig Carton is celebrating the Jets' win, he explains to Greg Jennings why he's not overreacting just yet.

Examining two plays when Jets blew open their upset over Dolphins

The Jets blew open their lead with 21 unanswered points in nine minutes of game clock during the fourth quarter. Even after losing Teddy Bridgewater (concussion/elbow), who was starting in place of Tua Tagovailoa (concussion), Skylar Thompson held on up to the fourth quarter.

So what happened during New York's run?

First, the Jets continued to operate their offense through their running backs — more on that later — which led to their first fourth-quarter touchdown. It came on the heels of a missed 54-yard field goal attempt from Miami, a self-inflicted miss from Dolphins kicker Jason Sanders.

So the Jets' offense capitalized on the special teams' gaffe with a TD.

Then New York's defense showed up on the ensuing drive. Outside linebacker Carl Lawson had a textbook pass-rush and found Thompson. Rather than wreck the QB, Lawson went after the football and forced Miami's first lost fumble of the season. Quinnen Williams recovered and the Jets started their next drive on the 5-yard line. They scored on their first play with a 5-yard touchdown run from running back Breece Hall.

That was the first game-changing play. The game honestly might have been out of reach at that point. But the Jets didn't take their foot off the gas.

On the ensuing drive, New York generated a fourth-and-out. Linebacker Kwon Alexander showed off his sideline-to-sideline speed by tracking down Raheem Mostert, who had been a problem for the Jets with 113 rushing yards and a touchdown. Even with a piece of tricky ball-handing — a lateral from fullback Alec Ingold to Mostert — Alexander tracked down the back for a loss.

And again, the Jets scored on the ensuing drive.

There's so much to like about how the Jets' defense set up their offense for easy drives on short fields. New York's offense looked better than it had looked in recent memory. That's because the defense did it a number of favors.

Michael Carter, Breece Hall did what Robert Saleh wanted: Make life easier for Zach Wilson

Jets offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur called a savvy game, with excellent running and pass-catching from his running backs. That seemed to set up wide open options for Wilson in the passing game.

This is exactly what head coach Robert Saleh wanted. He didn't want Wilson to reenter the mix after his preseason knee injury and feel the pressure to save this roster. I'll never forget Saleh saying: "This isn't the Catalina Wine Mixer." The point was that Wilson should take it easy, knock off rust and let his team do the work for him. That's exactly what happened on Sunday.

Michael Carter finished with 10 carries for 21 yards with two touchdowns, and he added two catches for 12 yards. If you think that stat line is ugly, keep in mind that he played a lot near the goal line. But then there's a beauty of a stat line: Hall put up 97 rushing yards and one touchdown with 100 receiving yards, gained largely on a 79-yarder.

"You can see how fast he is once he gets into space and how explosive he is, how hard he is to bring down," Wilson said of Hall postgame. "I get excited when I see him with that much room because he's going to be running for a while."

Wilson finished with a humble stat line: 14-of-21 for 210 yards. He also took two sacks for 23 yards, which wasn't ideal. But he finished the day with the top offensive grade on Pro Football Focus among Jets players: 81.9.

"We didn't turn the ball over. I thought he made big throws when he needed to make them," Saleh said. "I thought he did exactly what he needed to do to win a football game."

A silver lining for the Dolphins? They ran the ball well with Raheem Mostert

For the most part, the Dolphins should just fire this game tape into the sun. They didn't have Tua, Bridgewater or cornerback Xavien Howard. They didn't have Terron Armstead, who left with a toe injury, and Tyreek Hill didn't finish the game with an ankle injury. It's always good for a team to experience and overcome adversity. This was simply a train wreck for Miami. The team needs to see what went wrong — just about everything in the fourth quarter — and then turn the page.

If the Dolphins are looking for what went right, it'll be that they ran the ball well. They had 26 carries for 137 yards and two touchdowns. Before Sunday, they had been largely unable to run the football. They were averaging the fifth-worst sum in yards per carry (3.5). They boosted that number with 5.3 yards per carry against the Jets — and it started with featuring Mostert over Chase Edmonds, whose role is now likely to remain diminished for the foreseeable future. Mostert isn't making any big plays, but he's impressing his head coach.

"The ones that aren't really what you'd call sexy," Mike McDaniel said. "It's more those lean yardages where you turn a four-yard run into seven where now it's second-and-three instead of second-and-six. A huge difference. Those are the things that I think have really stood out with where he's at with his game."

Gabe Davis is BACK

It was quite the day to gawk at the third-year Buffalo receiver. My sense was that, for the past few weeks, Davis has acted as a decoy due to his ankle injury. And perhaps he proved me right. After participating fully in practice this week, he seemed to be past his injury. And then in Sunday's game he posted three catches. But if you paid close attention, you know that those three catches were big ones: a 98-yard touchdown, a 62-yard touchdown and an 11-yard catch. That added up to 171 yards and a pair of touchdowns.

He looked like Randy Moss out there.

The Bills are amazing on offense, even when they make mistakes. (I've written that they need to clean up those mistakes, but Josh Allen keeps gunslinging and blowing teams out.) Buffalo tied the turnover battle (2-2) and still won by 35 points.

That's insane.

The Patriots on fourth down

The Lions went 0-6 on fourth down. The Patriots were ready for the Lions to go for it. And every time the Patriots stopped Detroit, the pain built for Jared Goff & Co.

"I think the big part of that was understanding if you watch the third downs, we're in the huddle, we're saying, ‘This isn't the end. They're going to go for it on fourth down.' They've done that all year. So I think that was a big part of preparation," New England safety Devin McCourty said.

There's the mindset on third down that tacklers need only keep the runner from getting past the first-down marker. But the Lions are the kind of team that will punish a defense for that. They'll let you tackle their runner with a yard to go — and then they'll pick up that yard on fourth down. The Patriots changed their mentality accordingly. They gave zero extra yards on third down. Then they stuffed the Lions on fourth down.

Let's take a look at the situations and the outcomes.

• first quarter, fourth-and-1 at DET 45: Davon Godchaux and Christian Barmore tackled Jamaal Willams for no gain.

• second quarter, fourth-and-9 at NE 32: Matthew Judon logged a strip sack and Kyle Dugger recovered to return the ball for a touchdown.

• third quarter, fourth-and-2 at NE 34: Jon Jones tackled Amon-Ra St. Brown for no gain on a pass from Goff.

• fourth quarter, fourth-and-5 at NE 5: Goff fired incomplete to St. Brown with Myles Bryant in coverage.

• fourth quarter, fourth-and-1 at NE 31: Raekwon McMillan tackled Justin Jackson up the middle for a 1-yard loss.

• fourth quarter, fourth-and-4 at NE 18: Goff fired incomplete to Josh Reynolds with Jack Jones in coverage.

"It hurts," Lions coach Dan Campbell said postgame. "If you don't convert on third down, then you better do it on fourth. And so, we weren't good enough."

Prior to joining FOX Sports as the AFC East reporter, Henry McKenna spent seven years covering the Patriots for USA TODAY Sports Media Group and Boston Globe Media. Follow him on Twitter at @McKennAnalysis.