As injuries pile up, these 3 questions are top of mind as Bills prepare to play Giants

ORCHARD PARK - The Buffalo Bills will get back to a normal work week starting Wednesday when they begin preparations to host the New York Giants on Sunday Night Football.

And you can rest assured that one of coach Sean McDermott’s points of emphasis will focus on football’s most basic fundamentals because the Bills did not adhere to those particularly well in their sleepy and sloppy 25-20 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars.

“Fundamentally, we’ve gotta get ourselves back,” McDermott said. “Let’s just talk about throwing, catching, tackling, right? Those are the things that are at the forefront of some of the reasons why we got the result we did (Sunday).”

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Never mind throwing because Josh Allen threw the ball just fine, but the other primary skills (we’ll include running in here) were a problem for Buffalo.

There were three dropped passes - one each by James Cook, Gabe Davis and Stefon Diggs. Cook’s came on a third down which led to a punt, and Davis’ came on a second-and-10 near midfield which would have been a first down, but instead also led to a punt. And the running game was a complete mess as the 29 yards were the fewest by the Bills since Dec. 21, 2014 when they had 13 against the Raiders.

The Bills’ defense has been outstanding this season, but missed tackles have been an issue for this team going back a few years and Sunday, they were egregiously bad.

Pro Football Focus charted 20 missed tackles which obviously helped the Jaguars possess the ball for more than 38 minutes while they piled up 29 first downs, 474 yards of total offense, and 25 points, all season highs against Buffalo. The Jaguars averaged 4.6 yards after first contact per rushing attempt which is obviously horrible.

Ed Oliver had quite an interesting day. With DaQuan Jones going down, Oliver played a career high 71 snaps which is a crazy amount for a Bills defensive linemen in Sean McDermott’s heavy rotation. Oliver also had a career-high nine tackles and a career-high three tackles for lost yardage which included a sack, but he also missed three tackles and committed two costly penalties on Jacksonville’s first TD drive.

Dorian Williams, A.J. Epenesa (who otherwise had the game of his career), Terrel Bernard, Tim Settle, Leonard Floyd and Micah Hyde all had two missed tackles.

As for penalties, also a fundamental breakdown as they had 11 for 109 yards, both season highs. Four gave the Jaguars automatic first downs, and three of those came on third-down plays where the defense had stopped Jacksonville.

The first Oliver penalty came on the third-down play where Matt Milano got hurt. The Bills forced an incompletion but Oliver was flagged for illegal use of hands and the Jags took advantage and scored three plays later when Trevor Lawrence hit Zay Jones for a TD. On that play, Oliver roughed Lawrence, so with the ball placed at the 1, the Jags decided to go for two points and they succeeded, so in essence Oliver’s penalties cost Buffalo five points.

The other three first-down producing penalties were Jordan Poyer’s questionable personal foul on a third down, Taron Johnson’s second-down 26-yard pass interference, and Williams’ second-down illegal contact.

Here are three questions I have heading into the Giants game:

How do the Buffalo Bills replace injured Matt Milano?

Leading into the Jacksonville game, the big question was how were the Bills going to replace Tre’Davious White after the star cornerback suffered a season-ending Achilles injury against Miami. The Bills tried Dane Jackson, and he, along with Kaiir Elam - who had to replace the other injured starting corner, Christian Benford - were part of a secondary that gave up 315 passing yards to Lawrence.

Now they have to figure out a long-term plan to fill the massive hole in the defense left by the departure of Milano. Milano is without question the best player on that side of the ball for Buffalo, and the reality is that they won’t be able to get anyone on the field who can replicate all that he does.

He is a wrecking ball in the run game, he’s very good in coverage, and he is an adept blitzer when called upon. Milano flies around the field creating havoc and the Bills are not getting that from Williams (at least not right now), Tyrel Dodson, or practice squader A.J. Klein.

“You lose a lot when Matt’s not in and just what he provides for our defense,” assistant head coach Eric Washington said Monday. “His experiences, his skillset, the talent, that’s a significant piece to take out. And what you try and do is take the next person and make sure that person understands how they need to succeed. We’re not looking for him to replace Matt, but just be the best version that he can be.”

Williams took over when Milano went out, but he struggled and was eventually replaced by Dodson. It’s possible the Bills could move Bernard to Milano’s spot and go with Dodson - who actually played pretty well against the Jaguars - to the inside spot which is where he competed against Bernard during training camp. But I think McDermott wants Bernard to continue wearing the green communication dot on his helmet and he’d prefer he do that from the middle linebacker position.

I would say perhaps this is where Taylor Rapp can step into a unique role as a safety playing linebacker, at least on passing downs, but Rapp has not played well and that was clearly evidenced by the fact that he didn’t play a single snap on defense against the Jaguars. It appears the Bills don’t have much confidence in him.

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Can the Buffalo Bills patch up their defensive line?

Along with Milano, another key member of the defense went down in London, defensive tackle DaQuan Jones who suffered a torn pectoral which will require surgery and probably knocks him out for the season. Milano may be the best player, but going into the Jacksonville game Pro Football Focus had Jones as its highest-graded overall Bills defender.

“You can’t replace DaQuan, you can’t replace Matt Milano, you can’t replace Tre,” Von Miller said. “That’s just part of the game, a terrible part of the game to get injuries and especially serious injuries. You just gotta keep moving. I know it sounds cliche, but it’s really the only thing that we can do.”

Jones’ ability to plug the middle of the line and take on double teams has helped Oliver to flourish this season. Oliver has been making impactful plays in part because of Jones, but now that dynamic is lost. Jordan Phillips is capable of filling that role and will likely be given that chance, but he really hasn’t done much of anything when he’s been on the field this year. Out of 27 Buffalo defensive players, PFF currently has Phillips graded 26th.

Also, the Bills need to figure out what’s up with Poona Ford. They signed the defensive tackle as a free agent and he’s been a healthy scratch for the last three games. Kendal Vickers was promoted from the practice squad in London because he could chip in on the edge with both Greg Rousseau and Shaq Lawson out. He ended up playing 46 snaps, third-most among the defensive linemen.

On the outside, McDermott said Rousseau and Lawson are “improving” but their status for Sunday’s game are unknown. And Miller, who was held to 20 snaps in his season debut, is still working his way back into game shape. Because of that, A.J. Epenesa (59 snaps) and Leonard Floyd (46) carried a heavy load on the edge in London with Kingsley Jonathan (26) mixing in.

It’s a shame that the injury bug has arrived in full force because in the first four weeks, the defense was playing tremendously, and it was being led by the now ravaged D-line which was the best unit on the team.

Are the New York Giants really this bad?

As their former coach, Bill Parcells, famously said, “You are what your record says you are” and right now the Giants are 1-4 and yes, they are not a good football team.

There are problems up and down the roster that general manager Joe Schoen - who was Brandon Beane’s assistant in Buffalo for five years - has put together and Brian Daboll has not been able to work the magic he had last season when he guided New York to an unlikely playoff berth.

Not having star running back Saquon Barkley certainly hampered the offense because he’s really their lone playmaker. When Barkley is healthy and playing well, everything revolves around him. Without him, the Giants have been helpless because teams don’t have to worry about the running game and they load up to take away QB Daniel Jones’ limited wide receiver group.

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For a creative guy like Daboll, who worked wonders with Allen and the Bills’ offense because he had plenty to work with, it must be driving him crazy watching his offense crash and burn on a series-to-series basis.

The 31-16 loss to Miami was typical of their season. The offense had nine possessions and this is how they ended: Punt, missed field goal, punt, made field goal, punt, made field goal, punt, made field goal, turnover on downs.

The only TD New York scored came on defense - safety Jason Pinnock’s 102-yard interception return that briefly turned what could have been a 21-3 deficit into a 14-10 deficit. Not that it mattered because the Dolphins pulled away in the second half.

Daboll, a heck of a good guy but a truly monotone quote, said more than a few times in his post-game presser Sunday, “We gotta get better.”

This much we know: they can’t get much worse.

Sal Maiorana can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana and on Threads @salmaiorana1. To subscribe to Sal's newsletter, Bills Blast, which comes out twice a week during the season, please follow this link: https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Buffalo Bills injuries highlight 3 questions going into Giants game