The Buffalo Bills are one of the best teams in the NFL at this point in time. While they started the season at a 6-6 record, they finished on a five game winning streak and won the AFC East to take home field advantage in the wildcard round. Now they face a Pittsburgh offense that has struggled but has some talent on the offensive side of the ball.
Bills to Miss One of their Brightest Young Defenders in Playoff Game
While the Buffalo defense has managed a remarkable turnaround, the team will be missing one of their brightest defenders. Cornerback Rasul Douglas has been ruled out with a knee injury he sustained against the Miami Dolphins last week. Upon completing his move from the Green Bay Packers, Douglas has become an elite defender on this Buffalo defense.
While he was traded to Buffalo for just a third and fifth round pick, Douglas has graded out with an overall Pro Football Focus (PFF) score of 82.2 which makes him the ninth best cornerback in the NFL according to the reputable grading service. Douglas has completely changed the defense and given some quickness to a defense that desperately needed it.
Without Douglas, Buffalo will be starting Christian Benford at the cornerback position. Luckily for Buffalo, Benford has also turned in an excellent season and is tied with Douglas with a PFF grade of 82.2. While this doesn’t seem like a substantial problem, Buffalo will need all hands on deck to defend the talented Pittsburgh duo of Diontae Johnson and George Pickens. While Benford may be more than up to the task, that puts a lot of pressure on the defense to stay on the field longer than usual and could open up some deep balls for Pittsburgh.
In a game like this, the game could be decided by one or two deep passes and Buffalo will have to be planning for it.
More must-reads: