Stefon Diggs moved up to 10th in the NFL in catches and eighth in receiving yards with Sunday’s big game against the New York Jets.
Diggs has 56 catches for 750 yards on the season with four touchdowns.
He’s off his record pace of last season when he had 127 catches for 1,535 yards. But he’s still on pace for the second-most catches (105) and the second-most yards (1,416) in Buffalo Bills history.
Diggs’ 162 receiving yards were his most as a Bill. He led a big day for the Bills’ receivers.
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Here are the position-by-position grades for the game, based on video review and on a scale of 0 to 5:
Quarterback (5.0): Josh Allen has 19 TD passes through nine games, the same as last year when he went on to set the team single-season record. His pocket presence was outstanding, starting with the step-up in the pocket on the first TD pass. We’re not sure if the sack by the safety off the edge was on Allen or not.
Running backs (4.0): Reggie Gilliam got 22 snaps, tied for his season high he had vs. Kansas City. Just like vs. the Chiefs, the Bills went to more tight formations and big personnel packages. That allowed them to better attack the Jets with play-action passes, and it helped the run game work to the wide parts of the field. It worked beautifully. Matt Breida’s injection of speed to the Bills’ backfield helped. Even though he fumbled in the fourth quarter, he earned the chance to stay in the lineup. Zack Moss had a good blitz pickup on the TD pass late in the first half. Devin Singletary made Brandin Echols miss at the line of scrimmage on his first carry, a 15-yard run. Four Bills scored rushing touchdowns in a game for the first time in team history.
Receivers (5.0): Diggs & Co. outclassed the Jets’ young cornerbacks. The 23-yard pass to Diggs on the first play of the third quarter looked like the same play that opened the first quarter. Jets DBs Bryce Hall and Jarrod Wilson both were sucked into the backfield by the misdirection the Bills ran on the 24-yard end around by Emmanuel Sanders. Gilliam faked a pull block left, pivoted and led the blocking down the right sideline.
Offensive line (5.0): The return of Spencer Brown had a positive effect and allowed Daryl Williams to return to right guard, where he has performed better. Brown obliterated safety Ashtyn Davis on Isaiah McKenzie’s jet-sweep TD. He continues to do a good job of riding defensive ends way down the line of scrimmage to create bigger lanes for cutbacks. Williams had good surge on the first-down run from the Bills’ 4-yard line. All the play-action fakes helped the pass blocking. Still, left tackle Dion Dawkins had another good day pass blocking. Fans freaked out on social media over his early holding call. It was dubious. The defensive lineman was falling to the ground without much help from Dawkins. Granted, the Jets don’t have elite edge rushers. But their best edge guy, John Franklin-Myers, managed one hurry (on Ike Boettger). That was it. Quinnen Williams is good, but the Bills neutralized him, as well. Mitch Morse anchored well vs. him a few times and beat Folo Fatukasi at the point of attack on the 2-yard TD run.
Defensive line (5.0): Efe Obada made the most of his season-high 35 snaps. He caused the first interception by hitting Mike White’s arm, had a sack and would have had a second sack if it weren’t wiped out by penalty. Obada was a good fit vs. New York because the Jets don’t have much of a run game. He’s not built to hold up vs. the Colts’ double teams next week. Ed Oliver was sensational, making life miserable for guard Greg Van Roten. Oliver had three hits on the quarterback, one on a nice spin move vs. uber-athlete Alijah Vera-Tucker. Oliver also forced a holding foul. Harrison Phillips played stout, too. A.J. Epenesa had a good outing, drawing two holding fouls and setting the edge vs. the run. Greg Rousseau dropped into coverage four times. The roughing-the-passer call on Epenesa was like Dawkins’ hold. What can you do?
Linebackers (5.0): A.J. Klein showed again he is a capable No. 3 linebacker and is good going forward. He had seven tackles, two for loss, two others for no gain and a pass breakup. The coaches showed confidence in him. They didn’t resort to the dime defense once, despite the Jets sticking with spread formations. Matt Milano had a 7-yard tackle for loss on a swing pass, the highlight of his solid day.
Defensive backs (5.0): The defensive backs turned the Jets’ White into a pumpkin, with four interceptions. And Micah Hyde added a forced fumble. On Tre White’s interception, the Bills baited White into throwing deep by having White exchange the deep-half position with Jordan Poyer. Poyer got his fourth INT, had 10 tackles and had a big hit to force a fourth-down incompletion.
Special teams (4.5): McKenzie’s 26-yard punt return helped the Bills control field position in the first half. Matt Breida and Siran Neal dominated Jets gunner Justin Hardee to aid the return. On kickoff coverage, Breida and Taiwan Jones drew holding penalties. Damar Hamlin had good coverage on another kickoff, which had a superb, 4.19-second hang time by Tyler Bass. Matt Haack had only a 3.79 hang time on his second punt, which had a 37-yard net.
