The Bills moved to 6-1 on the season with a 36-10 victory over the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday. Despite the score, this game was much closer for a good portion of the game despite the Ravens losing Lamar Jackson to a right thumb injury in the first offensive play that will require surgery and an injured reserve stint. When Tyler Huntley came in, he suffered a right turf toe injury which led him to be questionable and later downgraded out.
Rookie Joe Fagnano tried his best to rally the team, but his inexperience couldn’t get the Ravens to move the ball unless they handed off to Derrick Henry. Even then, he still finished with 53 yards and a touchdown.
Despite the win, the Bills had several key players banged up. Read below for a full injury recap and analysis.
In-Game Injuries
G Alec Anderson (Right Leg)
Anderson had to briefly leave Sunday’s game due to what looked like a right leg injury suffered with 10:58 left in the first quarter. The video below is the best we can do before the All-22 comes out. As the camera pans away, you can see a body fall into Anderson’s leg.
He was in and out of the medical tent but was able to return to the game.
However, the team did bring in Austin Corbett a lot this game during various points which means this may be an injury Anderson will need some treatment for later this week.
WR Joshua Palmer (Right Hamstring)
Palmer went down suddenly with a right hamstring injury on a deep route with 2:29 left in the first quarter. He planted his foot in the ground to cut up the field and immediately began hopping and went down.
As soon as he changed direction, the hamstring went which is typical in sprint-type hamstring injuries. This happens when he performed terminal swing of the right leg, which is when he was pushing off and when he added a change of direction, this overloaded the muscle and he immediately went down.
This is the latest injury for Joshua Palmer who suffered a torn hip labrum, MCL sprain, and high-ankle sprain last season all on the left side. And yet somehow, Palmer has not had a hamstring injury before either.
Looking at the Banged Up Bills injury database, wide receivers miss 1.54 games but there is a wide range of possibilities for his absence between 2-6 games. We could see an injured reserve stint if this injury is severe enough and the Bills need the roster spot which they will now that CJ Gardner-Johnson’s suspension is up.
Palmer has just had terrible injury luck that has followed him through his NFL career and this is just the latest chapter.
WR DJ Moore (Left Shoulder/Left Knee)
In his first game back in a month, Moore got banged up quite a bit with several shots to his shoulder and a brief scare to his knee. His first shot to his left shoulder came at the 2:00 mark in the second quarter when he fell directly on the shoulder, fumbling the ball as he fell. He was able to get up and motion briefly to his shoulder before walking off.
The second instance happened after he had a deep catch to put the Bills into the red zone in the third quarter. With 9:06 left, Moore ran a slant and took another hard shot to the same shoulder. He did get assessed briefly on the sidelines but never entered the blue medical tent.
Moore’s final injury of the day came with 7:20 in the fourth quarter when he got clipped from behind, hyperextending his knee. He limped off and had training staff tending to him.
With the Bills having a secure lead, his day was over and he was seen limping following the game.
He did tell NFL Network’s Cameron Wolfe that his knee was good but I’d expect that he gets imaging to be sure.
Moore confirmed that he suffered a hyperextension of his knee which is what the video showed, but that he will get checked out.
This could be nothing with the injury looking worse than it was, it could be a bone bruise, meniscus, PCL, or even hamstring. I can’t discount the possibility of any of those until we get more information, but I’d lean more bone bruise or hamstring based on how he was moving following the game. We need a little more information because this knee and shoulder will be hurting later this week, but with the extra day to recover playing on Monday night, it’s possible Moore suits up. I do expect him to have a red non-contact jersey on again to let that shoulder continue to heal.
RB Ray Davis (Undisclosed)
Davis had to briefly come off after this punt return with 1:08 left in the third quarter. He disappeared into the pile which makes determining what the injury was difficult without another angle.
He was slow to get up and jogged off, giving the thumbs up before returning later in the game on both offense and special teams.
RB James Cook (Concussion Check/Right Leg)
Cook took a few shots late in the game starting with a scary looking fall to the turf where he landed face first. Teammate Alec Anderson frantically waving training staff over to assess Cook for a potential neck injury.
Amazingly, Cook popped right up after several moments and jogged off the field and into the blue medical tent. He was quickly assessed for a concussion as per protocol for concerning hits to the head and was cleared to return.
Shortly after returning, Cook took a shot to his right knee, thigh, or ankle during a run up the middle with 9:31 left in the fourth quarter.. The play itself isn’t notable, but the broadcast showed him limping a little walking down the sidelines and stretching out his right quad when he pulled his foot up to his buttocks.
He was able to return after this but with the game in hand, he did not see much more action.
Other Observations
WR DJ Moore (Sternoclavicular joint sprain)
It was announced before the game that Moore would be active which was great news after he missed the last two games and also had the bye to recover. We got clarification on his injury which we thought was an AC joint aggravation. However, Cameron Wolfe of NFL Network clarified that he suffered a SC joint sprain in Week 4 against the New England Patriots.
This is the joint on the other end of the clavicle where it connects to the sternum, hence the name.
This has a similar injury mechanism to the AC joint, but we tend to see this happen more when the shoulder is protracted forward and hitting on the outside portion of the shoulder. We see this in his injury back on October 4.
This also explains more why he missed two games as we’ve seen with Jalen Hurts, Ben Roethlisberger, and more significant cases with Tyreek Hill and Danny Amendola. This would have been a difficult injury to play through but with him playing through the AC joint sprain, this put him at risk to cause injuries to other structures which is exactly what happened. Today’s hits to the shoulder didn’t help but this may have been more AC joint related and lessened the damage.
Update 10:07 pm 11/1
According to Jay Skurski of The Buffalo News, Moore confirmed that he originally suffered an SC joint sprain back in Week 2 and then aggravated it in Week 4 on Friday. This led to him sitting out the last two games. It’s impressive that he played through the injury in the first place, but once he aggravated the injury, the best decision was to sit out.
OT Spencer Brown (Back)
Brown was ruled inactive ahead of Sunday’s game as he continues to manage his back injury originally sustained against the Los Angeles Rams in Week 5. He managed to get through Week 6 but after getting only a limited practice in on Friday, he was questionable but had stated he didn’t need to practice to play.
A limited practice gave him a shot to play but it’s wasn’t clear immediately if the plan was to play and his back just wasn’t ready this morning or this was more gamesmanship. I’d like to think this was more of the former but Brown has said that there’s no structural changes when he first injured the back. This may continue to be a facet issue that is just slow to heal or he has continued muscle spasms that are flared up easier because of the past trauma.
During the post-game press conference, Joe Brady, at the 13:23 mark , noted that they made the decision to sit him last night because he knew his back wasn’t allowing him to be the best version of himself. He did state that he was close which means that the plan was tp play. This confirms though what it appeared to be that he wanted to play but the back wouldn’t let him.
Until we get more information stating otherwise, this will be a maintenance issue to get him ready and hope that the back calms down enough to get through games. There is always a small chance that he could have another herniation in a disc as these can happen after microdiscectomies, but his original mechanism of injury didn’t suggest that there was a new disc herniation.
Final Thoughts
The score shows domination, but this game was far closer for most of the game even after losing Lamar Jackson and Tyler Huntley, forcing the team to suit up their third string quarterback Joe Fagnano who played through injury himself.
The win moves the Bills to 6-1 on the season as they get ready to take on the Minnesota Vikings on Monday Night Football in Minnesota. They have an extra day recover but the Vikings will be an incredibly difficult test due to the Vikings defense.
We’ll see what the injury report brings on Thursday but I expect to see some roster transactions based on today’s injuries. Check back for the latest updates following Monday’s press conference and news this week.
Top Photo Credit: Gregory Fisher-Imagn Images
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