The Buffalo Bills know how to keep this fan base on their toes and not in a good way. After putting up a stinker of a game against the Jets on prime time, the Bills followed up with a complete throttling at home by the New Orleans Saints by a score of 47-10. As a fan, I saw nothing good come out of this game. The offensive line didn’t look as porous as the Jets game, but still could not provide effective protection for Tyrod Taylor to make effective throws or move the ball. The entire offense looked out of sorts even with all the weapons that Tyrod had at his disposal. This was not a good game and if more is said on this topic, it will not be pretty.
Thankfully, this forum is not designed for my two cents on how the Bills play. I always leave the X’s and O’s to my friends at The Rockpile Report. Give them a listen; by far the most thorough and honest analysis of our beloved Buffalo Bills. However, the goal of today is to discuss the Buffalo Bills injuries sustained after Sunday’s drubbing.
Thankfully, the Bills continue to avoid the major season changing injuries that many other teams have sustained this season. The only injury that has been reported so far is DE Jerry Hughes. His injury was sustained at the end of the 1st half in which he injured his shin. He was observed warming up on the sidelines but did not return. It is unknown whether he was unable to return or was sat out as the game was out of reach at that point.
From my standpoint, there isn’t much that Jerry Hughes could have injured in his shin. The shin (tibia) is part of the lower leg which is the bone that makes up part of the knee and the ankle. While there are a multitude of muscle attachments that connect to the area to assist in knee and ankle movement, the shin itself doesn’t have a lot of possibility for injury. I believe that he may have suffered a contusion to the skin/tissue over the bone which made it painful to run. As mentioned above, the muscles do attach to the tibia which when moved, does pull on their attachment points, which could pull on the painful tissue.
Hughes also may have sustained an injury to his tibialis anterior which assists the foot in lifting up (dorsiflexion) and moving inward (inversion). This muscle is the meaty portion of the front and outside portion of the shin. A contusion to the muscle belly could make running painful and prevent effective pivoting, especially with the demands of his position. Either way, these aren’t injuries that keep most players down for long and Hughes is known for his durability during his career.
However, I will state that Hughes did not sustain a fracture. I do not believe this to be the case as he would have had imaging performed and ruled out if there was any possibility. He would have also had a definitive diagnosis today and most likely expected to miss several weeks if that were the case.
The only serious injury that occurred Sunday was to Saints RB Daniel Lasco on a kickoff return. Lasco hit his head directly into the hip of WR Brandon Tate and dropped immediately. It appeared initially as though he was not moving which brought back immediate thoughts of Kevin Everett 10 years ago. Thankfully, his injury was nowhere as severe but is season ending. It was determined today that he has a disc bulge in his neck and will most likely require surgery to correct the issue.
To give a better understanding to what happened, it helps to understand the anatomy in the area. The spine is comprised of bones called vertebrae which stack upon one another and allow the human body to stay upright and distribute the weight of the head and the trunk effectively. These bones allow the spinal cord to pass through it and act as a cage for the spinal cord and allow the nerves to branch off into all areas of the body. This allows for the nerves to provide input to move each muscle and allow various sensations to be felt. In between each vertebrae is a vertebral disc which acts as a shock absorber, allow for fluid movement between the vertebrae, and acts as spacer to prevent pinching of the nerves.
When Lasco’s head directly collided with Tate’s hip, it compressed the vertebrae on each other so much that it bulged or herniated one of these discs in the neck (cervical). This most likely began pushing on the spinal cord or a spinal nerve, causing radicular or traveling pain down the nerve. This is typically seen as weakness, numbness, and pain in the affected area. If you were able to see Lasco being loaded into the ambulance, he was able to raise his right arm, but it did not appear to be a strong, confident motion typically seen in the movies.
In a majority of non-sport cases, these types of injuries can be effectively managed non-operatively through physical therapy, chiropractics, injections, etc. However, due to the nature of the injury as it was quite traumatic and the impact football has on the body, that may not provide the best long term options, especially if he wants to return to football. He may get a cervical discectomy and fusion to the affected area in which the herniated portion of the disc is partially or totally removed and the vertebrae above and below the area are fused together to eliminate movement and further pressure on the nerves. He is able to return to football without any long term issues, but repeated injuries to the neck may impact his long term career prospects. This is why former Bills player S Aaron Williams found his career ending prematurely due to similar injuries.
As mentioned above, while the Bills played poorly, injuries are not being added to the insult and the Bills are not losing players to injured reserve. I would still want a tired but overall healthy starter out there in Week 15 fighting for a playoff spot rather than the backup just trying to hang on and not able to provide the same level of play. The Bills are banged up right now but should have some key players return in the coming weeks.
Continue to check back for further updates including analysis of the Bills injury report come Wednesday and when more information is known. As always, thank you for reading, follow me on Twitter at @kyletrimble88 for the latest updates and GO BILLS!!
