LONDON (AP) — The Bills arrived jolly. They came out flat. They're going home battered.
Buffalo rallied but fell short in a 25-20 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Starting linebacker Matt Milano left early with a knee injury that is “not looking good,” said coach Sean McDermott. That's after losing starting cornerback Tre’Davious White last week to a season-ending Achilles tendon injury.
NFL Network's Ian Rapoport reported that the Bills fear Milano's injury will end his season.
McDermott is not optimistic about DaQuan Jones, either. The defensive end injured a pectoral muscle.
And McDermott is definitely not pleased with the scenario of arriving in London on Friday to play a team that had already been in the British capital for a week.
“We’ll see if, whatever comes up down the road in terms of us coming back here, but we need to evaluate everything because I didn’t feel like our energy was good enough early in the game. They had better energy than we did,” McDermott said.
The Jaguars stayed in town after beating the Atlanta Falcons last week at Wembley Stadium. It's the first time a team has played consecutive games abroad.
“Our guys were in really good position health-wise. They felt energetic, and they felt good to be here,” Jags coach Doug Pederson said. “I did feel like our guys were ready to go. The 10 days over here were good for us.”
Arriving late in the week — as Jacksonville and Atlanta did before their game — is the current trend for teams, who usually cite advice sports scientists. Teams can choose to come earlier, however, as the Baltimore Ravens are doing this coming week for their game against the Tennessee Titans.
The sluggish Bills punted on their first four possessions and managed just 29 yards on the ground.
“That’s not going to be good enough to win most times in the NFL,” McDermott said. “At the end of the day, we’ve got to be able to win the line of scrimmage a little bit more.”
The Bills' defence was on the field for 82 offensive plays by the Jags, who were 10 of 18 on third down.
Milano, a first-team All-Pro last season, was hurt in the first quarter while pressuring quarterback Trevor Lawrence on third-and-6 from the Buffalo 10. He was carted off the field. He had made three tackles in the game.
“It's a knee and lower leg injury,” McDermott said. “I know it’s not looking good right now, but I don’t know any details beyond that at this point.”
Jones “also not looking good at this point," he added.
VON MILLER TIME
Von Miller returned but the NFL's all-time active sacks leader had little impact, not a surprise given it was his first game in 10 months because of a knee injury.
“Von was on a pitch count today so we didn't have him through the second half like we would hope down the road,” McDermott said.
Miller said he "got enough reps in to build on ... and get ready for the (New York) Giants next week.”
Christian Benford was inactive with a shoulder injury, leaving Buffalo without its two starting cornerbacks.
“You can’t replace DaQuan. You can’t replace Matt Milano. You can’t replace Tre White. That’s just part of the game,” Miller said. “You’ve just got to keep moving. I know it sounds cliché, but it’s really the only thing that I can do.”
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