On Sunday afternoon, the Buffalo Bills will hit the road to take on the New England Patriots in a battle of the two top teams in the AFC East. The Bills have been playing improved football of late, including knocking off the Cincinnati Bengals at home a week ago, but will now face an uphill battle against a Patriots team that hasn't lost in over two months.
Ahead of Sunday's clash in New England, the Bills got some rough news on the injury front regarding their defensive secondary.
“#Bills CB Christian Benford, having as good a season as he's had with plenty of splash plays, is out today vs. the #Patriots, per me and (Mike Garafolo),” reported Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network on X, formerly Twitter. “He suffered a foot injury this week.”
As Rapoport noted, Benford is one of the key members of the Bills' secondary, a unit that has been improving as the season has gone on this year.
In his absence, the Bills will have to lean even more heavily on players like Cole Bishop to make things happen in the defense backfield against the Patriots and their MVP candidate quarterback, Drake Maye.
Meanwhile, wide receiver Gabe Davis will be a healthy scratch for the game and Terrell Bernard will also be out due to injury, while Josh Palmer will return from injury, per Ryan Talbot of Syracuse.com.
Overall, the Bills and Patriots both figure to be contenders in an AFC playoff race that seems to be wide open now that the Kansas City Chiefs have effectively been eliminated from the hunt, and Sunday's game could go a long way in determining seeding for the postseason.
The Bills and Patriots will kick off at 1:00 pm ET.
