AFC East recap of week one division games leaves two at top and bottom

The first week of NFL football had two rival games in the AFC East as we recap the division.

On Sunday, the NFL kicked off the 2020 season and the AFC East faced each other to open their respective schedules. Naturally, two are unbeaten.

In New York, the Jets traveled to Buffalo to take on the Bills and it didn’t take long for the New York City media to start bashing the Jets as pathetic.

Manish Mehta who covers the Jets made no bones about how the Jets should be embarrassed by their play. This isn’t a surprise considering that Adam Gase is their head coach and no one is playing as though they are inspired. Carryover from last year.

The Jets didn’t look good but took advantage of a few breaks late in the game to make it look good. At the half, the Jets were down 21-3 and while they held the Bills in the 2nd half to only six points, they couldn’t recover losing 27-17 but never really challenging the Bills for the game.

Overall the Bills played good football but I think many expected to see a bit more polish against a Jets team that isn’t very good.

More from Phin Phanatic

• Tua Tagovailoa practicing with teammates is everything a leader does
• 4 offensive tackles Miami Dolphins could draft at 51
• Miami Dolphins don’t need CB help but these 5 could be available at 51
• 4 players that could replace Wilkins if Miami Dolphins don’t re-sign him
• Miami Dolphins have a starting point with Wilkins after Simmons deal

Not surprising the game was won on the legs of Josh Allen. Allen threw 46 passes on Sunday but only completed 33 of them, still better than half but his accuracy is still being critiqued. He rushed for 57 yards and a touchdown on 14 attempts. Leading all of the Bills rushers.

This will be interesting as next week he will face the Dolphins who couldn’t contain Cam Newton.

The Dolphins and the Patriots started out pretty slow but the Dolphins defense could do nothing against the run and this was all Bill Belichick and Josh McDaniel’s gameplan. It was a good one.

The Patriots didn’t come out passing but instead focused on testing and attacking the Dolphins front seven with option after option. Kyle Van Noy looked completely lost most of the game and when the Dolphins stacked the line of scrimmage to take away the run, Newton just burned them with Julien Edelman across the middle.

It was not the way the Dolphins were hoping to start but again, this is a young football team that is only in year two of a rebuild and starting an old over the hill QB in Ryan Fitzpatrick.

There were plenty of Dolphins fans saying that Fitzpatrick didn’t play as bad of a game on Sunday as his stats showed but I disagree. Fitzpatrick did not look fluid and while some of his passes were tight, his consistency was off.

To be fair, he did face one of the best secondary in the entire league and he didn’t have DeVante Parker on the field for most of the 2nd half.

As week one closed on the AFC East, the division is naturally where everyone expected it to be. The Bills and the Patriots are on top and the Dolphins and the Jets are on the bottom.

Next week the Dolphins will host the Bills, the Jets will host the 49’ers, and the Patriots will travel to the Northest to take on the Seahawks.