Jets win game, lose Sanchez

TORONTO - Their playoff light is still flickering, though it might've come at a steep price.

Prized rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez suffered an unspecified injury to his right knee - which wasn't the same knee he tweaked in last Sunday's win over Carolina and wears the bulky brace on - with about eight minutes left in the third quarter and didn't return in the Jets' 19-13 win over the Bills at the Rogers Centre last night.

With the Jets ahead 16-10 and staring at a first-and-10 from their own 38, Sanchez suddenly came up gimpy after handing the ball off routinely to David Clowney on a reverse, almost appearing as if his leg possibly got caught in the turf. It's unclear if he injured himself two plays earlier, when he slid headfirst - despite Joe Girardi's Tuesday lesson - on an 8-yard scramble to get a first down.

Sanchez headed straight to the bench after Clowney's run to get looked at by the team trainers. They spent a few minutes checking Sanchez's knee out before taking him to the locker room, presumably for X-rays. He never came back onto the field to even sit on the bench. He finished 7-for-15 for 104 yards, though he missed a wide-open Jerricho Cotchery in the end zone on the Jets' second drive of the game.

Kellen Clemens finished things out for the Jets (6-6), playing the bulk of the final 23 minutes and engineering an eight-play, 34-yard drive that was capped by Jay Feely's 37-yard field goal that gave the Jets a 19-10 lead early in the fourth.

The Bills struck first, immediately testing cornerback Lito Sheppard, who was making his second straight start back at his familiar right cornerback spot. Buffalo went right at Sheppard and Lee Evans beat him easily for a 37-yard gain, setting up Rian Lindell's 49-yard field goal to give the Bills a 3-0 lead.

Braylon Edwards could've given the Jets a big spark soon thereafter, but dropped a sure touchdown pass. Facing a first-and-10 from their own 16, Sanchez dropped back and floated a bomb in the direction of Edwards, who was streaking unguarded down the right sideline. Edwards had Reggie Corner beat by a mile, er kilometer, and all he had to do was catch it and run for the end zone. But he flat-out dropped it and the Jets ended up going three-and-out.

The Jets took a 6-3 advantage on a 49-yard field goal by Feely, but Buffalo regained the lead on Marshawn Lynch's 15-yard TD run, which came a play after a 35-yard gain in which Kerry Rhodes made a weak tackle attempt at the end of Lynch's run.

Lynch's bulldozing TD - he plowed over safety Jim Leonhard at the goal line - made it 10-6 and the Jets thought they went back in front on their next drive when Clowney came down with a tough grab along the right sideline in the end zone on second-and-5 from the Bills' 13. But the pass was ruled incomplete and Rex Ryan challenged unsuccessfully. Feely's third field goal, from 31 yards, cut it to 10-9 with 6:09 left in the first half.

Sanchez engineered a six-play, 86-yard drive on the Jets' final possession of the half, which culminated with a 12-yard Edwards TD pass. Edwards did his best to get into the end zone to make up for his earlier gaffe, using his 6-3 frame and extended the ball over the goal line. He was ruled down at the 1, but was credited with a touchdown after an official review.

Edwards's score gave the Jets a 16-10 cushion with 44 seconds to go in the half, and something to feel good about after all their first-half miscues.