For all the talk this year about Chris Johnson losing his step and not being worth his new contract that made him one of the highest paid players in the league, he’s recently found his legs and just in time as the Titans make a push for the playoffs.

After a two month hiatus Johnson has comeback in a huge way rushing for 190 yards last week, and this time rushing for 153 yards and two touchdowns on 23 carries, as the Titans gave the slumping Bills another loss 23-17. The Titans now sit at 7-5 and are in a tie for the final wild card spot with four other teams.

The Bills, who started the season on fire, now find themselves at 5-7 and out of the playoff race losing their fifth straight on Sunday. The Bills are now in a battle for the bottom of the AFC East as Miami beat Oakland on Sunday and pulled to within one game of the Bills. For the Titans, next up is the red hot New Orleans Saints who are coming off a big win over the Detroit Lions.

“In the beginning of the season, the passing game carried us, and now it’s time for the running game to step it up,” Johnson said. “The offensive line and everything is hitting on all cylinders right now, and hopefully we can continue to keep this momentum going.”

The Titans moved ahead when Johnson broke a run 48 yards for the score and they never looked back. On the Titans next possession he ran another in from four yards out which put Tennessee up 17-7. Rob Bironas added three field goals along with two fumbles the Titans won an easy one over the Bills.

Buffalo which looked like an early team to contend for a playoff spot, rushing out to a 5-2 record, has gone into a tailspin. The Bills are currently  looking more like the team that was 0-8 last year, and that no one expected to do anything this year. ”Extremely shocked and disappointed: All those words,” quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick said. “The way we’ve played lately hasn’t been good enough.”

C.J. Spiller who has been filling in for the injured Fred Jackson had a career high 83 yard performance and a touchdown. His touchdown came on a 35 yard run. Stevie Johnson, who was under fire for his antics during last weekends’ game when he mocked Plaxico Burress by pretending to shoot himself in the leg after he scored a touchdown, had 5 catches for 52 yards and a touchdown.

“Last week was last week,” said Johnson, “We moved on to the Titans and we tried to get this W and we came up short.” The Bills looked like they might mount a comeback, but ran out of time at the end of the game. The Bills try to snap their losing skid next week when they travel to the West coast for a showdown with the San Diego Chargers, who snapped their own losing streak with a win Monday night over the Jaguars.

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Tennessee will head to Buffalo on Sunday looking to keep pace with the rest of the teams in the wild card hunt. Tennessee is seeking its first back to back wins in almost two months and will need to make a run in the last few weeks in order to have a shot at making the playoffs. The Bills on the other side will probably have to win out the rest of their games just to have a shot at making it.

Tennessee is in a position where it could maybe catch up to the first place Houston Texans with the Texans down to their third-string quarterback T.J. Yates, a rookie from North Carolina, and the recently signed Jake Delhomme. With the teams finishing out the season against each other a few wins and Tennessee could be playing for the division in that final game.

“We’re aware of where we are in the standings every week and what our situation is, and that’s why we have to realize how important this game is for us,” coach Mike Munchak said. “We’ve got to win if we’re going to have a chance to play more than 16 games.” The Bills suffered their fifth straight road loss and fourth loss on the road last Sunday when they fell 28-24 to the New York Jets.

“We have to win out, and we probably have to get some help — and that’s what I told the team,” coach Chan Gailey said. While the offense, which had been lacking in the previous three losses, bounced back against the Jets, too many penalties doomed the Bills in MetLife Stadium. They committed a season high 9 penalties and gave up 138 yards on just 23 carries to a running game that had been struggling.

The Bills are giving up 123.8 yards on the ground per game which is ranked 21^st in the league, and it won’t be easier for them this week as they face running back Chris Johnson who is coming off his best performance this season rushing for 190 yards. Another problem for the Bills could be if they let the Titans get to the red zone as they rank second to last in TD efficiency inside the 20 and the Titans hold the NFL’s highest mark scoring a TD over 70 percent of the time they get there.

With leading rusher Fred Jackson out for the year, and C.J. Spiller not filling the role effectively so far the Bills will have to rely on Ryan Fitzpatrick and the passing attack to put up points. That plays right into Tennessee’s strength as they have the 13^th ranked passing attack giving up only 229.1 yards per game.

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It wasn’t as easy for the New York Jets in their second game with the Buffalo Bills, but the end result was the same. The Jets won a critical game and kept their playoff hopes alive. Led by Mark Sanchez and his career high four touchdown passes, the Jets escaped Sunday’s game with a win when Sanchez found Santonio Holmes for a 16-yard score with just over a minute left to keep the Jets in the thick of the AFC playoff race.

“He’s at his best in big moments,” coach Rex Ryan said. This was as big a moment as the Jets have had all season and with the win they now have only five more to go. The sentiment through the Jets locker room this week has been that they have to win in order to make it to the post season. It was looking like that was going to end with the first game when Dave Rayner hit a 53-yard field goal to put the Bills up 24-21.

Sanchez then led the Jets down the field, the key play coming on a third and 11 from the Bills 36 where Sanchez found Plaxico Burress along the sideline. Burress reached up and made an amazing one handed catch for 18 yards and the first down. ”It was crazy,” Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis said of the catch. “He’s 6-foot-5 and he’s got those ‘Go-Go-Gadget’ arms. It was probably one of the best catches I’ve seen in a while.”

Sanchez ran a sneak to assure there would be no challenge and then on the next play rolled out right and found Holmes in the end zone for the go ahead score. Though posting a career high in touchdown passes, Sanchez was far from great. He finished 17 of 35 for 180 yards and a pick, but when things mattered most, he prevailed.

His Bills counterpart, Ryan Fitzpatrick, bounced back from a streak of bad games to go 26 of 39 for 264 yards and three touchdowns, but couldn’t manage one more at the end. Fitzpatrick found a wide open Stevie Johnson, but Johnson dropped the pass. He also missed Johnson in the end zone as he threw behind him and the catch couldn’t be made.

Johnson made headlines for other reasons than just the dropped pass. He scored a touchdown late in the first half and to celebrate mocked shooting himself in the thigh, clearly a shot at Plaxico Burress who had accidentally shot himself in the leg in a nightclub in 2008 when he was with the Giants.

He then continued by mocking the “flight” celebration many of the Jets use after they score and fell to the ground which got a flag for 15 yards and ended up leading to the Jets tying the game back up 14-14. ”I was just having fun and part of having fun ended up being a penalty and a touchdown for the Jets,” Johnson said. “It was a stupid decision by myself.”

“I’ve seen worse, and I’ve heard worse,” Burress said of Johnson’s celebration. “So, it doesn’t bother me at all. The result I’m looking at is we won the football game.”

The Jets have won their first game and look to continue their streak for the playoffs as they head down to Washington to square off with quarterback troubled Redskins. The Bills, now losers of four straight games look to snap the streak as they head home to face Matt Hasselback and the Tennessee Titans.
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Tony Romo and the Dallas Cowboys offense looks like its back to full power and with a solid defense the Cowboys are looking strong. They dominated the Bills in more than convincing fashion with a 44-7 victory. With the Cowboys schedule getting even easier, Tony Romo torched the Bills defense on their first four series all ending in touchdowns.

Terence Newman added two interceptions, one which he ran back for the score and the Cowboys cruised to victory. This was the second straight victory for Dallas who moves to 5-4 and one game behind the Giants. The difference is the Giants have one of the hardest remaining schedules and the Cowboys have one of the easiest. The Cowboys next three opponents have a combined record of 6-18.

“We needed a game like this,” tight end Jason Witten said. “This needs to be the foundation of what lies ahead for this team.” This marks the most points scored by a Cowboys team since 2007 when now-coach Jason Garrett had his first game as offensive coordinator.

The Cowboys have been benefiting from more balance on offense and much of that is thanks to the emergence of rookie running back DeMarco Murray. He rushed for 135 yards on 20 carries and a touchdown while contributing 35 yards receiving on 6 catches out of the backfield.

Murray has been helping to create space in the secondary by creating problems for opposing defenses. ”They can’t load the box on us and they can’t double-team wide receivers,” Murray said. This was the first game Romo played without a special vest protection for the broken rib he suffered back in Week 2.

Romo put the Cowboys up 21-0 with a 34 yard touchdown pass to Dez Bryant, and a 58 and 5 yard passes to Laurent Robinson. He hit on his first 13 throws and finished 23 of 26 and 270 yards. His completion percentage, 88.5, set a franchise record for a single game. Though the offense was somewhat shutdown after those first scoring drives, they protected the lead with no interceptions from Romo and the offensive line doing their job and allowing no sacks for the second straight week.

“We are learning a little bit about who we are and what we can do and what we are capable of doing,” Romo said. Dallas handed Buffalo its second straight beat down and third loss in four games. They didn’t do much right in this game and need to turn things around quickly to stay in the playoff hunt.

We will regroup and continue to work to get better,” Gailey said. “But you have to go do it. Nobody’s going to give you anything in this league.” Ryan Fitzpatrick had another forgettable day. He was 20 of 31 for 146 yards a touchdown and three interceptions. The touchdown was a 3 yarder to David Nelson. The Bills were only able to convert 2 of 7 on third down.

After signing his new 6 year $59 million contract Fitzpatrick has had two bad games. ”We put in some good practice time and really thought we’d come out here and play well,” Fitzpatrick said. “It’s hard to even think ahead right now because of how embarrassing that loss was.”

The Cowboys forced four total turnovers getting a fumble from Jackson, his second of the season. The lone bright spot was Jackson who racked up 114 yards on 13 carries. The Bills look to turn things around and avoid three straight losses with a trip to Miami next Sunday to face the Dolphins who are suddenly the winners of two straight, while the Cowboys head to Washington to face the Redskins losers of five straight.

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