{"id":654731,"date":"2026-01-05T02:06:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T02:06:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/654731\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T02:06:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T02:06:15","slug":"buffalo-bills-rout-the-jets-35-8-in-potential-final-game-at-highmark-stadium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/654731\/","title":{"rendered":"Buffalo Bills rout the Jets 35-8 in potential final game at Highmark Stadium"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) \u2014 After taking the first snap, Josh Allen headed to the sideline and joined the 70,000-plus fans to watch backup Mitch Trubisky throw four touchdown passes as the Buffalo Bills bid a likely farewell to their long-time home with a 35-8 rout of the New York Jets on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>Gabe Davis caught a touchdown pass and Ty Johnson had a TD run and a scoring catch in an outing during which the playoff-bound Bills (12-5) rested a majority of their starters.<\/p>\n<p>Buffalo\u2019s defense, meanwhile, manhandled an injury-depleted and backup-filled Jets offense that was blanked through 3 1\/2 quarters and finished with 122 yards of offense and nine first downs.<\/p>\n<p>The win, coupled with the Los Angeles Chargers\u2019 loss at Denver, led to Buffalo moving up one spot in clinching the No. 6 seed. The Bills will travel to play the AFC South champion Jacksonville Jaguars in the wild-card round next weekend.<\/p>\n<p>Instant reaction: <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wkbw.com\/sports\/buffalo-bills\/instant-reaction-how-the-buffalo-bills-stack-up-against-the-jacksonville-jaguars\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">How the Buffalo Bills stack up against the Jacksonville Jaguars<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019ll be the third playoff meeting between the teams, with Jacksonville winning both. The Jaguars defeated Buffalo 30-27 in what stood as Bills Hall of Fame quarterback Jim Kelly\u2019s final game in 1996. More recently, the Jaguars beat Buffalo 10-3 in 2017 in the Bills first playoff appearance after ending a 17-year postseason drought.<\/p>\n<p>It was the latest blowout loss for the Jets (3-14), who closed their first season under coach Aaron Glenn, losing five straight in which they were outscored by a combined 188-54.<\/p>\n<p>They became the NFL\u2019s first team to lose by 23 or more in five consecutive games in one season.<\/p>\n<p>The outing turned into an afternoon-long celebration for the Bills and their fans, many of whom stayed throughout in Buffalo\u2019s final regular-season home game at the 53-year-old Highmark Stadium. The Bills will be moving across the street to their new $2.1 billion facility next season.<\/p>\n<p>The team honored its past with Kelly and fellow Hall of Famers Thurman Thomas and Andre Reed addressing the crowd. Even 100-year-old Hall of Fame coach Marv Levy delivered his familiar line of, \u201cWhere would you rather be than right here, right now,\u201d in a video message broadcast on the scoreboard during halftime.<\/p>\n<p>By then, the outcome was essentially sealed with Buffalo leading 21-0 in at half. The Jets were limited to four first downs and 63 yards of offense.<\/p>\n<p>And a majority of the fans were still on hand, and rose to their feet at the final 2-minute warning to sing along to what\u2019s become their victory theme song: \u201cMr. Brightside.\u201d As Trubisky took a knee coming out of the break, a large cheer rose through the stadium with fans tossing up snow like confetti in a lengthy cheer. They continued to stay to sing Buffalo\u2019s traditional \u201cShout!\u201d song and then \u201cIris\u201d by the hometown Goo Goo Dolls.<\/p>\n<p>Trubisky finished 22 of 29 for 259 yards.<\/p>\n<p>The loss secured New York the No. 2 pick in the draft.<\/p>\n<p>Undrafted rookie Brady Cook, making his fourth straight start, went 11 of 22 for 60 yards and a 2-yard touchdown pass to fullback Andrew Beck with 7:33 remaining.<\/p>\n<p>The Jets became the NFL\u2019s first team to finish a season without a defensive interception. And New York finished with just four takeaways, breaking the NFL-low record of seven set by San Francisco in 2018.<\/p>\n<p>Allen, nursing a sore right foot, took the first snap to extend his starting streak to 135 (including playoffs) \u2014 the NFL\u2019s longest active run among quarterbacks.<\/p>\n<p>James Cook, who entered as the NFL\u2019s rushing leader, finished with 15 yards to up his total to 1,564. The only player capable of catching Cook is Baltimore&#8217;s Derrick Henry, who has 1,469 yards rushing, entering the Ravens game against Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n<p>    Double bonus<\/p>\n<p>Bills tight end Dawson Knox entered needing 7 yards receiving to reach 400 and earn a $100,000 bonus. With three TDs this season, the seventh-year player was also one score away from another $100,000 bonus. He achieved both with a game-opening 17-yard touchdown.<\/p>\n<p>    Injuries<\/p>\n<p>Jets: LB Quincy Williams left in the second half with a hand injury.<\/p>\n<p>Bills: K Matt Prater aggravated a quadriceps injury in the first half.<\/p>\n<p>    Up next<\/p>\n<p>Jets: Season over.<\/p>\n<p>Bills: Open wild-card round at Jacksonville.<\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p>AP NFL: <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nfl\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nfl<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/bills-follow.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) \u2014 After taking the first snap, Josh Allen headed to the sideline and joined&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":654732,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2048],"tags":[215,214,53,2086,7,4704,6,14253],"class_list":{"0":"post-654731","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-buffalo-bills","8":"tag-bills","9":"tag-buffalo","10":"tag-buffalo-bills","11":"tag-buffalobills","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-highmark-stadium","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-one-bills-drive"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115840049807119240","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=654731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/654732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=654731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=654731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=654731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}