5 things to watch as Jets face Bills in Week 14

Last month, the Jets stunned the Bills 20-17 on a late Greg Zuerlein field goal and now head to Buffalo on Sunday for the rematch. The Jets have lost two of three since that game and are currently two games behind their division rivals.

Here are some of the biggest stories to watch as the Jets attempt to stay in the AFC East title race...

Can Mike White exorcise his demons from last year’s start against the Bills?

Mike White’s third and final start of 2021 was also against the Bills, as he threw four interceptions in a 45-17 blowout loss. If White is to remain as the starter, he needs a much more consistent performance against the AFC East leaders this time around.

It wasn’t all bad from White in that game, as he passed for 251 yards and three of his interceptions came after the Bills had taken a big lead, forcing the Jets to take more risks. The Jets will hope that their defense will do a much better job of keeping them in the game this time, giving White a better chance to build on his last two starts.

Will the Jets be able to run the ball as effectively as they did in the last meeting?

The Jets leaned on their running game in last month's upset win, racking up 174 yards on the ground and running the ball down the Bills’ throats on the game winning drive. However, the Bills’ run defense has improved dramatically over the past month.

Although the Bills were without star linebacker Matt Milano for that game, the Jets have seen George Fant return to the lineup and the emergence of Zonovan "Bam" Knight as a solid run threat over the past few weeks. Milano has missed some practice time again this week and has been called “day-to-day” by head coach Sean McDermott.

Can the Jets find a way to start forcing some turnovers again?

Heading into the bye, the Jets had forced at least one turnover in every game, including two interceptions of Josh Allen in the win over the Bills. However, the turnovers have dried up a little with C.J. Mosley’s garbage time interception against the Bears being their only one since the bye.

The Jets didn’t force any turnovers in the losses to New England and Minnesota and haven’t recovered a fumble on defense since week six as they have the worst fumble recovery rate of any NFL team.

At some point you’d expect that to regress to the mean. Hopefully for New York, this means they are overdue some potential game-changing plays on defense.

What effect will the weather have?

Some weather forecasts indicate that we should be expecting snow for this weekend’s game. While the weather doesn’t figure to be as bad as it was when the Bills-Browns game was moved to Detroit last month, it sounds like the conditions will be cold and wet.

Clearly this will have an impact on each team’s passing game and could also be a factor in ball security and the kicking game. One other potentially crucial factor in cold weather can be missed tackles. The Jets must focus on their tackle efficiency, especially with Allen being so tough to bring down.

Can the Jets shut down Stefon Diggs?

Stud wide receiver Stefon Diggs, who already has over 1,200 yards and 10 touchdowns this season, was virtually unstoppable in the early stages of the previous Jets-Bills matchup. Halfway through the second quarter, Diggs already had five catches for 93 yards, including a deep catch that saw him beat Sauce Gardner.

Somehow, the Jets managed to shut Diggs out for the rest of the game, enabling them to battle back from a 14-3 deficit to score the upset win.

Having just held Justin Jefferson to 45 yards in Sunday’s game, the Jets will be confident that they can prevent Diggs from having another big day. This will force the Bills to rely on their other pass catching options instead, none of whom has more than 35 catches on the year.