ORCHARD PARK — It was not the play that won the game for the Jets.
It was the play that tied it.
But it might as well have been the play that delivered the Jets their feel-good 27-23 victory over the Bills on Sunday at New Era Stadium, a win that put a merciful end to a season-sabotaging six-game losing streak.
Because the play represented a liberation of sorts for Sam Darnold, the Jets rookie quarterback who’d missed the previous three games with a sprained right foot.
The play was a third-and-5 from the Buffalo 7-yard line early in the fourth quarter with the Jets trailing 20-13 and with touchdowns like precious drops of drinking water in the desert for them (they’d scored three in the previous five games).