New York Jets: Previewing the Buffalo Bills with co-expert John Carroll

Facing McCown

AS: How does the Bills game plan change going against Josh McCown as opposed to Sam Darnold?

JC: The Bills game plan changes drastically now that it seems like the Bills will be playing Josh McCown in lieu of Sam Darnold.

The number one thing is the Bills can no longer rely on mistakes from the opposing offense. All of last year’s playoff runs, and even in Buffalo’s two wins this year, they relied heavily on forcing turnovers. The Bills offense will rarely score a lot of points and they do not help themselves in that department.

What does help them is turnovers and giving the offense chances to even settle for field goals. So, with Darnold out that game plan changes. Darnold would have thrown a lot of picks against the Bills’ defense. The Bills have one of the best in the league.

Now, McCown knows that if he protects the ball the BIlls will have a rough go at it. The game plan goes from sitting and waiting for Darnold to mess up to know having to force the veteran McCown into making them. That is a big difference.

This game can end up favoring the Jets now in terms of tactics. The Bills, if they don’t get the turnovers they need, will get frustrated and we know what happens when NFL teams get to rattled. The Bills need to play smart now and rely solely on talent.

Only time will tell if that ends up working out of not.

I am personally quite grateful to my co-expert for sitting down and discussing the upcoming game between our two teams. Please follow his outstanding work on this site. John’s articles can be found right here.