Bills vs Jets NFL Week 17 scores, stats, highlights and updates

On December 30, 2024By Littum

ORCHARD PARK — Josh Allen hinted last week that the Bills might have held back some of their playbook during their win over the Patriots, preferring not to put too much on tape ahead of the postseason.

If the Bills did go into the game with a vanilla game plan, it almost cost them, as they had to rally from a 14-point deficit to pull out an all-too-close-for-comfort 24-21 victory against a bad win. division rival.

On Sunday, another poor division rival will be at Highmark Stadium, although one could argue that the New York Jets are a better team than the horrendous 4-11 record indicates because they have a much better roster than the Patriots.

The Bills can’t afford to mess around, because thanks to the Ravens’ Christmas Day win and the fact that they host the Browns in Week 18, they remain in the hunt for the No. 2 seed in the AFC playoffs, and the Bills must win one of their final two games to secure the prized position.

“I think locking down the two seeds is the first priority,” Allen said Thursday. “And all that does is guarantee us two home playoff games and you have to win the first one to get the second one. So all we’re worried about is going out there this week and just trying playing good, healthy football and our brand that we know how to play, I think that’s a huge plus when things are locked up.

Winning Sunday would also give Sean McDermott the added benefit of resting many of his frontline players in Week 18 at New England, so the stakes are high in this matchup against an opponent that would love to cause some anxiety in Buffalo.

Stay here all day for updates.

Bills fans party in the rain at the final home game of the regular season

Good news on the roster front as safety Taylor Rapp and linebacker Matt Milano are both active and ready to play. Rapp had missed the last two games with a neck injury, and Milano sat out last week with a groin injury.

The Bills will be without safety Damar Hamlin for the third week in a row, and wide receiver Curtis Samuel for the second week in a row.

The other inactives are cornerback Kaiir Elam, safety Lewis Cine, linebacker Nick Morrow, defensive tackle Austin Johnson and offensive lineman Tylan Grable.

Cine was elevated from the practice squad in case Rapp or Cam Lewis couldn’t play, but with both active, he wasn’t needed. Instead of Samuel, the Bills called up Tyrell Shavers to serve as the fifth wide receiver.

As for the Jets, all their injury concerns during the week were a smokescreen. Questionable players like wide receiver Davante Adams, defensive tackle Quinnen Williams and cornerback Sauce Gardner – perhaps New York’s three best players – are all active for the game.

Saturday’s practice squad almost always provides a glimpse into what the active game day roster might look like, and it does so again for the Bills.

Wide receiver Tyrell Shavers and safety Lewis Cine have both been called up for the second time this season, indicating that wide receiver Curtis Samuel and one of the safeties Taylor Rapp, Damar Hamlin and Cam Lewis will also be out . .

Samuel (ribs), Rapp (neck), Hamlin (ribs) and Lewis (shoulder) are all listed as questionable on the final injury report released Friday.

Samuel was inactive last week against the Patriots and Jalen Virgil was called up, but his three elevations have now expired, so Shavers — who has been called up twice — will get his third and final chance of the season unless the Bills add him or Virgil 53-man roster at one point.

Rapp and Hamlin have each missed the last two games, while Lewis – who has played in all 15 games – was injured against the Patriots. Cine was called up to the Rams game, but only played on special teams.

As we saw on Sunday against the Patriots, divisional play is just different. The teams’ records usually don’t matter because the familiarity that both sides have with each other makes it much more difficult to catch an opponent and sharp execution is essential. That will be even more prevalent this week because the Bills and Jets have already played each other once this season, so both coaching staffs will have to come up with different ways to attack.

Allen said after the Patriots game that the Bills are “in a weird spot right now” because they’re trying to get the best possible seed, but they also want to save some of their playbook for the playoffs. “How much are we willing to show? Do we want to go extreme and show everything in our arsenal when there’s a line that you have to stand on?” he said.

With no. 2 seed still up in the air, it doesn’t seem logical to hold anything back against a Jets team that no one should overlook despite the ugly record. New York has a better roster than the New England team that just gave the Bills trouble last week. The sensible thing to do would be to take care of business and then rest and play vanilla next week in New England in a game that would no longer matter.

Date: Sunday 29 Dec
Time: 13.00
Place: Highmark Stadium

Who is favored to win Bills vs. The Jets game

Bet line: Bills -10
Over-under: 46
Money line: Bills minus-550 (bet $550 to win $100) and Jets plus-400 (bet $100 to win $400).

Who is announcing the game Bills vs. Jets

Play-by-play: Jim Nantz
analyst: Tony Romo
Sideline reporter: Tracy Wolfson

∎ Cable/Network TV: CBS. The game will be available locally via the following stations: WROC Channel 8 (Rochester Area), WIVB Channel 4 (Buffalo Area), WTVH Channel 5 (Syracuse Area), WKTV Channel 2 (Utica Area), WENY Channel 2 (Elmira area), WRGB channel 10 (Albany area) and WBNG channel 12 (Binghamton area).

∎ Online streaming services: You can watch games on NFL.com and the NFL mobile app, and you can subscribe to NFL+, the league’s own streaming service, although you can’t cast the games to your TV — you have to watch them on your phone or tablet.

∎ TV streaming: You can also stream games if you have subscriptions to Spectrum, DirecTV, fuboTV, Sling, Vidgo, Hulu + Live TV, YouTube TV and Paramount+.

On the radio: How to listen to the Bills vs Jets game

You can listen on SiriusXM satellite radio on channel 226 (Bills feed) and channel 382 (Jets feed) and on traditional radio the Bills Radio Network has stations across the state. Chris Brown has the play-by-play, Eric Wood is the analyst and Sal Capaccio is the sideline reporter. The network includes:

Rochester (WCMF 96.5 and WROC 950 AM)
Buffalo (WGR550, 550 AM)
Syracuse (WTKW 99.5/WTKV 105.5)
Binghamton (WDRE 100.5FM)
Ithaca (WIII 99.9/100.3 FM)
Bath (WVIN 98.3 FM)
Newark (WACK 1420 AM)
Dansville (WDNY 93.9 FM)
Elmira (WNGZ 1490 AM)
Auburn (WAUB 98.1 FM/1590 AM)
Geneva (WGVA 95.9 FM, 1240 AM)

Sal Maiorana has covered Buffalo Bills for four decades, including 35 years as a full-time beat writer for D&C, and he has written several books on the team’s history. He can be reached at [email protected] and you can follow him on X @salmaiorana and on Bluesky @salmaiorana.bsky.social. Sign up for his Bills Blast newsletter here: