EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Before New York Jets running back Breece Hall could even think about getting toward the line of scrimmage, Buffalo Bills cornerback Tre'Davious White met him for a 5-yard loss.
White completed the tackle by throwing Hall to the ground, jumped up and began to celebrate, including flexing at the end.
The play was in the second quarter of the Bills' 30-10 win over the Jets with the Bills already up 13-0 and the Jets trying to gain some sort of traction. White was making his first start in Bills uniform since he tore his right Achilles on Oct. 1, 2023. He missed last week's game with a groin injury suffered on Aug. 21.
So, his celebration?
"It was my first play being made back in Bills blue, so it's something to f---ing celebrate," White said. "My teammates have been supporting me along the way. I'm just so happy to be back with the guys and make plays with guys that I'm so familiar with and I've been playing with for a long time. So, it was a big play for us. Anytime you can get a negative play on first and second down, it sets us up to have success on third down."
Along with White's return, the Bills defense had plenty to celebrate throughout the win over the Jets as the team improved to 2-0.
The defense came out of the Week 1 win vs. the Baltimore Ravens with the goal of being intentional in correcting what went wrong and focusing on the fundamentals. The Bills gave up 40 points, including 238 yards on ground.
The unit's Week 2 performance couldn't have been more of a 180 turnaround. The Bills held the Jets to three points until a garbage time drive at the end of the fourth quarter and ended quarterback Justin Fields' day with his worst career total quarterback rating and tied for the second-worst total QBR by a Jets quarterback since the metric began in 2006 (1.1). The defense forced four three-and-outs, three drives that ended with the Jets gaining a net negative yardage and not a drive over 34 yards until the final.
The team also maintained its impressive streak of 24 consecutive games without losing the turnover margin, including playoffs, the longest such streak in NFL history.
"Better understanding of the plan, coaches, led by [defensive coordinator Bobby Babich] did a great job putting a good plan together, players executed," coach Sean McDermott said. "They spent time like they did last week, don't get me wrong, but they were really intentional this week about the details and making sure they understood where they were supposed to be and when they were supposed to be there. So that's got to be an every week thing, but I like what I saw."
A standout of the day, in just his second game with the Bills, was defensive end Joey Bosa. He finished with two forced fumbles (one recovered by defensive end AJ Epenesa, the other by the Jets) and six quarterback pressures with a sack.
"It was a great week to prepare for a similar type of player in Fields," Bosa said. "Obviously Lamar [Jackson] is real dangerous on his feet, and that's kind of the league we're playing in now with dual-threat quarterbacks. So, we tried to learn our lesson and do the best we can to stop his feet and get after him in the pass and we were able to get a few stops early which gave us a chance to kind of rush the passer. Obviously, the offense did a great job, we got a few turnovers and yeah, it kind of played out exactly how we were hoping."
One area for the defense to continue to work on, however, will be quarterback's abilities to break out for big runs. Fields broke out for 27-, 11- and seven-yard runs, almost half of the Jets' 100 net rushing yards on the day. That is an area that Jackson had success with the week prior as well.
The Bills were able to take a variety of starters out of the game early, include White (mid third quarter), with McDermott noting that they were monitoring him after the time he missed, as well as taking him out early being part of how the game unfolded.
The performance came without two starters on defense in defensive tackle Ed Oliver (ankle), who had one of his best games vs. the Ravens, and nickel corner Taron Johnson (quadriceps). Linebacker Matt Milano also did not return to the game after halftime, appearing to wear a wrap on his right arm. He did not practice Monday dealing with a pectoral injury. McDermott said that he was "dinged up a little bit here, so we gotta see where that goes."
Those injuries are something to monitor as the Bills face a short week and will host the Miami Dolphins on Thursday Night Football (8:15 p.m. ET, Prime Video).
"A short week, we've got to wash this one," quarterback Josh Allen said. "Typically, on Thursday night games we don't really even watch this film. We let our coaches do that and we've gotta turn our focus to our next opponent and that's Miami Thursday night."