Despite the Buffalo Bills being one of the best teams in the league, they still manage to find “Billsy” ways to lose. If you don’t recall that phrase, it’s a phrase that was used more commonly during the drought when the Bills found ways to lose otherwise very winnable games. This one adds to the numerous chapters as the Bills dropped to 10-3 on the season.
Yes, the Bills lost 44-42 to a desperate Los Angeles Rams team that were trying to keep their playoff hopes afloat. The defense was suspect all game, mistakes on special teams compounded the defensive struggles and a Herculean effort from Josh Allen went to waste in what should be an MVP season for the superstar.
While this loss doesn’t hurt them in the playoffs as the division is locked up, this does hurt their chances at securing the number one seed for home field advantage.
Below are all the injuries coming out of Sunday’s loss and analysis.
In-Game Injuries
DE Casey Toohill (Right Ribs)
Toohill quietly exited the game with a rib injury to his right side as seen below.
How he injured the ribs isn’t quite clear as it looks like he had someone land on the area. However, where he is touching is where the rib cartilage connects the ribs to the sternum. Rib cartilage is less vascularized than bone and slower to heal when damaged. I do expect Toohill to miss at least one game and potentially more as he takes the time to recover. This is not an injury that a numbing shot and padding can gloss over initially.
Fellow defensive end AJ Epenesa suffered a similar injury last year when he fell on the football following an interception of Patrick Mahomes. He attempted to return and realized he could not before he missed the next two games. While Toohill is out, Javon Solomon should see an increase in snaps.
CB Rasul Douglas (Left Back/Ribs, Knee)
Douglas took a beating on Sunday both in pass defense and from an injury perspective. The Rams definitely saw something on tape that allowed them to continue to harass Douglas all day.
On top of that, Douglas suffered a brutal friendly fire hit from Taylor Rapp on the left side of his back injuring what appeared to be his ribs. He was deemed questionable with a back injury and returned the next series.
However, when he returned, he lasted only three plays before exiting with a knee designation. As you can see on the different angles, Douglas’s left knee was hit when Kupp landed on his left knee and he was seen flexing it out later.
However, a Cover 1 Discord member noted that Douglas’s right knee was also hit on the way down which could have also injured the right knee.
For what it’s worth, his left knee was the side that was injured back in Week 18 last year forcing him to play through a torn MCL through the playoffs. This very well could be an MCL sprain but considering both sides could have been injured, we don’t know which side is affected currently. My guess is the left. We don’t have a real update which means waiting until Wednesday will tell us which side and how severe the injury really is to establish a timeline.
S Taylor Rapp (Left Shoulder)
Rapp was briefly assessed after his hard collision with teammate Rasul Douglas as seen during the play above.
His left shoulder collided with Douglas and he remained on the ground. This was also the same shoulder that he was on the injury report for coming into the game which likely only aggravated the prior issue. The exact issue prior was not clear either. Fortunately, he was cleared to return and finished the game.
Final Thoughts
Milano still knocking the rust off is not surprising and this was the reason I thought they’d ease him back in. It’s important to note the team acknowledging it and that they know he isn’t back yet. This was a concern even after the extra time off due to the biceps tear.
This was a winnable game that came down to several plays and penalties. The Bills could have won this, the Rams could have still won even if clock management wasn’t as much of an issue. The Bills came out of the game a little more banged up than usual and they have generally gotten healthier as of recently.
It looks like they will be without Toohill and Douglas for the short term which only really hurts them for next week against the Detroit Lions. Javon Solomon and Kaiir Elam can step up and get valuable reps for the postseason. The Bills can survive the last three divisional games against the lowly Jets and Patriots even with a few backups in.
Hopefully everyone heals quickly and we should finally get Keon Coleman and Dalton Kincaid back to help provide as much offensive firepower as possible.
Top Photo Credit: Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
