FLORHAM PARK, N.J. – Oday Aboushi is in his second week as the Jets' starting left guard, and his assignment this week at MetLife Stadium is a formidable Bills defensive front, a group that leads the league in sacks.
“I think they all just play with great effort,” Aboushi said. “I know a lot of their players are coming on for them. It’ll be a good challenge for us.”
That will certainly be true. The 1-6 Jets haven’t won a game since beating the Raiders in the first week of the season. The 4-3 Bills will try to extend that with their defensive front of Mario Williams, Kyle Williams, Marcell Dareus and Jerry Hughes.
“Bills’ front is one of the stoutest in the league, so we know that’s going to be a challenge,” Jets coach Rex Ryan said. “But it’s not like we’re not going to give it a shot; we’re certainly going to give it a shot. We recognize who we’re up against, but it’s not like we’re just going to make it pass [skeleton]. We’re going to try to run the football and I think we will run the football.”
The Jets have had some good running games with running backs Chris Ivory, Chris Johnson and Bilal Powell, but they’ve also struggled at times. Against the Broncos, the Jets only had 31 total rushing yards. Ivory leads the Jets with 432 yards on 88 carries this season and is averaging 4.9 yards per carry. Chris Johnson has 261 yards on 64 carries for 4.1 yards a carry.
Johnson said there is a formula to success on Sunday.
“Stay on our assignments and get some hands on those guys and if we can do that, we should be all right,” Johnson said.
The Jets are sixth in the league in rushing yards per game. But still, how easy is it to get Mario Williams out of the way?
“I can’t get him out of my way,” Johnson said with a laugh. “The offensive line has to do that.”
Johnson has faced the Bills before with the Tennessee Titans.
“They always had a good defensive line, always had a fast group,” Johnson said. “This is not a game where we just hand off and we break 10-, 15-, 20-yard runs every time we touch the ball. It’s going to be a grind.”
Creating those gaps will be a challenge for Aboushi, who is learning on the job as he continues to start for the injured Brian Winters. Fellow offensive lineman D’Brickashaw Ferguson says it’s the only way to get used to the game.
“Everybody starts in a different way, but when you get in there, that’s how you begin to learn,” Ferguson said. “You learn by doing. Whether it’s the beginning of the season, the middle of the season, it doesn’t matter. When you get in there, that’s when you realize what it is to play in this league.”