Bills: Kyle Orton gets his groove back in Detroit

In the previous post in this section, we discussed the how the Buffalo Bills passing attack was becoming increasingly conservative with Kyle Orton under center. The team was losing, and it was clear that if the Bills were to remain in playoff hunt, they needed to return to the more aggressive passing game they used when Orton took over. That is exactly what happened when they took on the New York Jets in Detroit, the Bills' home for the day.

Orton led the way, passing for 230 yards and two touchdowns on the way to a comprehensive 38-3 victory, earning himself a +2.7 passing grade to boot, third-best among all quarterbacks in Week 12; his 117.42 PFF QB rating led all signal callers for the week. The key to Orton's performance was efficiency, he avoided turnovers and consistently found his targets; his 90.3 Accuracy Percentage was the second best mark for the week. Orton also pushed the ball further downfield than in his previous two performances, rather than simply relying on short, dump-off passes. Against the Jets he gained 65.7% of his passing yards before the catch, and averaged 7.19 yards per attempt, big improvements on his marks from the previous two games (40.3% and 5.2, respectively). It was a welcome return to form for Orton and the Bills.