The Buffalo Bills fell just short of beating the New England Patriots and now they must try and rebound and regain the momentum built up over the past two weeks. The Bills appear headed in the right direction, but they must continue to push forward instead of rest on the loss to their head coach's biggest rival. Injuries could make that effort difficult on a short week as Tyrod Taylor appears to potentially be out for the game against Kansas City.
According to Mike Rodak of ESPN.com, the Bills are not certain Taylor will be healthy for Week 12 play after the quarterback suffered an apparent shoulder or upper chest injury on Monday night. The quarterback did finish the game, but was in noticeable pain when leaving the field. Head coach Rex Ryan commented that he had no idea what the extent of the injury was and whether or not his quarterback could play in Week 12.
"Yeah, when I saw what you guys saw with the shoulder, I wanted to make sure my kid was okay," Ryan said, via NFL.com. "I wasn't going to put him out there if I had ever felt he wasn't okay and I wanted assurance that he was, but I made sure EJ was ready to go in there."
The Bills appeared to finally be getting healthy and an injury to Taylor would be a setback. The quarterback did suffer a knee injury earlier in the year which caused EJ Manuel to get a start under his belt this season. If Taylor were unable to play in Week 12, Manuel would get the starting nod. The offense would not be expected to change much in that situation.
The Bills walked away from Monday night relatively healthy. The Patriots defense certainly did their best to shut down the bread and butter of the Bills which was the run game. LeSean McCoy only managed 82 yards off 20 carries while Karlos Williams had a very quiet night of 11 yards from six carries.
Chris Hogan had a breakout game for the Bills despite not finding the endzone. The wide receiver had 95 yards of six catches from seven targets. He and Robert Woods made the biggest impacts through the air while Sammy Watkins only managed three catches for the team. Those numbers must improve. Taylor missed several throws throughout the game. Going up against Kansas City could be a better matchup for the Bills, but the offense needs to find better balance as their defensive front could also take away the run game in Week 12.