The Bills lost to the Jets on the road in Week Nine, but they avoided a season sweep on Sunday with a 20-12 win in their building.
One of the biggest differences between the two games was the presence of linebacker Matt Milano in the Buffalo defense. Milano led the team with nine tackles and he also had two passes defensed, a tackle for loss, a forced fumble, and a quarterback hit.
That hit sent Jets quarterback Mike White to the locker room with injured ribs and the Bills forced Joe Flacco to fumble one snap later. That led to a field goal that helped them secure the win and it also led to praise for Milano from defensive end Shaq Lawson.
“Game changer when we have him,” Lawson said, via Katherine Fitzgerald of the Buffalo News. “You can tell when we’ve got Matt Milano. He’s flying around the field making plays, TFLs, hands on the balls, he’s just all around the ball. So, it changes. You see a difference when we don’t have Matt Milano and when we got him.”
The loss of Von Miller for the rest of the season will impact the Bills, but the level of impact will be mitigated if players like Milano and Greg Rousseau keep producing the way they did in Sunday’s win.
